Gaylen N. Chandler

Entrepreneurial Effectuation: A Review and Suggestions for Future Research

Effectuation represents a paradigmatic shift in the way that we understand entrepreneurship. Since its introduction, however, few researchers have attempted to empirically test effectuation. Our purpose is to encourage effectuation research. To do so, we review the effectuation literature and make suggestions for how to design and conduct empirically rigorous effectuation studies consistent with the developmental state of the research stream.

Involvement in Knowledge-Acquisition Activities by Venture Team Members and Venture Performance

This research uses concepts of organizational learning to analyze knowledge acquisition by management teams in emerging firms. Involvement in ongoing knowledge–acquisition activities is positively and significantly related to venture performance. In addition, task environment dynamism is a positive moderator of the relationship between involvement in knowledge–acquisition activities and venture performance.

Entrepreneurial opportunity identification and new firm development processes: a comparison of family and non-family new ventures

This research examines differences between family and non-family firms with respect to new venture creation processes. We invoke a social embeddedness explanation of differences between family and non-family firms with respect to opportunity identification processes and outcomes and new venture development processes. In a sample of 183 family and non-family firms, we find that family firms are less likely to report an opportunity identification process that is sudden, spontaneous and creative. The new opportunities thus identified are less innovative than those identified by non-family firms. Finally, family firms are somewhat more likely to follow effectuation processes and significantly less likely to follow causation processes during new venture creation. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Bootstrapping Techniques and New Venture Emergence

Among nascent entrepreneurial ventures, are some types of bootstrapping techniques more successful than others? We compare externally oriented and internally oriented techniques with respect to the likelihood of becoming an operational venture; and we compare cash-increasing and cost-decreasing techniques with respect to becoming operational. Using data from the first Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics, we find evidence suggesting that when bootstrapping a new venture, the percentage of cash-increasing and cost-decreasing externally oriented bootstrapping techniques that a ventureʼs owners use are positive predictors of subsequent positive cash flow (one and two years later). But, internally oriented techniques are not related to subsequent cash flow.

Founder Characteristics and Legitimacy-Seeking Behaviors

The entrepreneurʼs experience, personality, and values affect the entrepreneurʼs behaviors and decisions (Chrisman, Bauerschmidt, and Hofer 1998). Past research results show that (1) more experienced new venture founders have a greater likelihood of leading their ventures to early success than less experienced founders (Delmar and Shane 2006) and (2) founders who engage in legitimacy-seeking behaviors have a greater likelihood of leading their ventures to early success than founders who do not do so (Tornikoski and Newbert 2007). We propose that more experienced founders understand the importance of obtaining legitimacy for their ventures and therefore will engage in more legitimacy-seeking behaviors. In addition, we propose that entrepreneursʼ growth aspirations and internal locus of control are also associated with engagement in legitimacy-seeking behaviors. We test and find support for these propositions in a sample of new ventures and their founders.

Some Predictors of Entrepreneurship Article Impact

We study scholarly impact in the entrepreneurship field. To answer the question of which factors predict impact, we focus on understanding how article citation behaviour has changed over 20 years. We apply paradigm development theory and framing concepts to guide our study. We find that the value attached to both an article and the article’s authors has become a greater predictor of article citations over time. Additionally, we find that whether authors’ claim that their articles present interesting or useful ideas predicts article impact. But the nature of the impact differs depending on the type of the claim. The pattern of results suggests that entrepreneurship research may currently be at an intermediate stage of development.