Reflecting on the 12 works that compose this special issue, we are struck by the distinctiveness

of effectuation as a theory native to the domain of entrepreneurship. While theoretical

perspectives from disciplines including economics, psychology, and sociology have been
applied to understanding the new venture phenomenon, entrepreneurship scholars have
historically had little to offer in return beyond the testing bed. The authors in this special issue
begin to make the case for transforming the bed into fertile soil in which the disciplines can grow
and bear new fruit. Moreover, uncertainty, co-creation, resources, goals, and control all
represent important and current issues in management, marketing, organizations, finance, and
operations. Effectuation has something new to offer each of these. In this article, we summarize
what we learn from the works in the special issue in order to construct a research agenda that
can move effectuation from entrepreneurship to the disciplines and beyond into new futures.

This study examines how firms’ decision-making logics and entrepreneurial resourcing
behaviors combine to create value. We conduct a qualitative comparative analysis investigating
configurations of effectuation, causation, and bricolage that are associated with firm
performance. We consider firm size and development stage as contextual factors that
differentiate the effectiveness of ways in which firms combine effectuation, causation, and
bricolage. Using a sample of 305 Chinese firms, we find six solutions explaining entrepreneurial
processes in high-performing firms. Based on a comparison of effective configurations across
firm size and development stages, we theorize three paths along which small early-stage firms
can evolve into large late-stage firms while maintaining high performance.

Scholars have criticized effectuation research for being insufficiently embedded in a nomological
network of practically relevant antecedents. To address this research gap, the current study
uses a mixed-methods design. First, a qualitative study with 20 venturing experts
(entrepreneurs and investors) validates various effectuation logics and uncovers the following
four antecedents of effectuation and causation: founders’ perceived uncertainty, entrepreneurial
experience, management experience, and investor influence. Second, a large-scale quantitative
study of founders in online, software, and high-tech start-ups (n = 435) provides statistical
support for the identified antecedents, using structural equation modeling and multigroup
comparisons over early and later venture stages. The study confirms the multifaceted nature of
effectuation; experimentation is the only effectual logic that reflects influences of all the
determinants. Founders’ prior experiences affect experimentation and causation in the early
venture stage, but not during the later stages. Investor influence displays the broadest array of
effects on the decision logics, offering both theoretical embeddedness for effectuation and a
new, practically relevant driver.