Effectuation

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Effectuation is a corporate decision-making logic that can be used in situations of uncertainty . It is not based on historical data and predictions of the future based on it. Effectuation is mainly used in the development of business opportunities and business models in situations in which reliable forecasts are not possible due to high uncertainty.

The effectuation approach is a result of global entrepreneurship research. It was founded by today's entrepreneurship professor Saras D. Sarasvathy from the University of Virginia as part of her doctorate, in which she examined the decisions of supraentrepreneurs , i.e. successful multiple founders . Since then, the approach has been empirically proven and further developed several times, but has also been vehemently criticized.

Resource instead of goal orientation

Predictive approaches with linear-causal logic assume that the future can only be controlled to the extent that it can be predicted. The effectuation theory, on the other hand, postulates that you don't have to predict everything that you can control. This primarily relates to your own resources, your own knowledge and your own partnerships. Such a resource-based approach also means that entrepreneurs do not start with strategic goal planning when identifying business opportunities, but that the formulation of the goals takes place as an experimental learning process in a process of personal interaction with customers and other business partners: With every new partnership, new potentials arise, which also expand the available resources. Active design takes the place of market positioning and planning.

The approach is closely related to the resource-oriented concept of dynamic capabilities .

Principles of Effectuation

Attitude towards the future : the future is unpredictable (the result of co-creation) and can be shaped through agreements between autonomous actors. (E.g .: investors, partners and customers enter into agreements with regard to a future product, a new company or a market that does not yet exist, thereby reducing uncertainty.)

Basis for action : Means orientation: The means available in each case ( who I am , what I know and who I know ) determine which (changeable) goals are strived for (and not the other way around). "Instead of (...) 'What should you do?' (...) pragmatic 'What can I do?' "

Attitude towards risk and the use of resources : The individually affordable loss or use (and not the expected return ) determine which opportunities are taken and which steps are actually taken in a project.

Attitude towards others : entering into partnerships with those who are willing to enter into binding agreements under uncertainty and who contribute their own resources to the creation of the opportunity.

Attitude towards the unexpected : The unexpected, coincidences and circumstances can be used as opportunities and levers and transformed into innovation and entrepreneurial opportunities.

literature

  • Michael Faschingbauer: Effectuation. How successful entrepreneurs think, decide and act. 3. Edition. Schäffer-Poeschel, Stuttgart 2017, ISBN 978-3-7910-3679-3 .
  • S. Read, S. Sarasvathy, M. Song, N. Dew, R. Wiltbank: Marketing Under Uncertainty: An Effectual Approach. In: Journal of Marketing. Vol. 73, No. 3, May 2009, pp. 1 ff.
  • S. Sarasvathy: Effectuation: Elements of Entrepreneurial Expertise. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham 2008, ISBN 978-1-84844-572-7 .
  • Robert Wiltbank, Nicholas Dew, Stuart Read, Saras D. Sarasvathy: What to do next? The case for non-predictive strategy. In: Strategic Management Journal. Vol. 27, No. 10, 2006, p. 16 ff.
  • Stuart Read, Saras D. Sarasvathy: Knowing What to Do and Doing What You Know: Effectuation as a Form of Entrepreneurial Expertise. In: The Journal of Private Equity. Vol. 9, No. 1, 2005, p. 45 ff. (18 pages)
  • Saras D. Sarasvathy: Causation and effectuation: Toward a theoretical shift from economic inevitability to entrepreneurial contingency. In: The Academy of Management Review. Vol. 26, No. 2, 2001, p. 243 ff. (21 pages)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Saras D. Sarasvathy: Causation and effectuation: Toward a theoretical shift from economic inevitability to entrepreneurial contingency. 2001.
  2. ^ S. Sarasvathy: Effectuation: Elements of Entrepreneurial Expertise. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham 2008, p. 18.
  3. ↑ KM Eisenhart, JA Martin: Dynamic capabilities: What are they? In: Strategic Management Journal. 21 vol., No. 10/11, 2000, pp. 1105-1121.
  4. ^ Michael Faschingbauer: Effectuation. Everyone can learn to think and act entrepreneurially. In: tw topic economy . May 2016, p. 63 ( ihk-niederrhein.de [PDF]). Effectuation. Everyone can learn to think and act entrepreneurially. ( Memento from June 11, 2016 in the Internet Archive )