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Suitable for MBA and executive learners, this case series presents a narrative that prompts students to discuss entrepreneurial thinking. An entrepreneur who loves his native Swedish Lapland uses his natural gift for effectuation to ask What? What next? And What now? As his ventures evolve, students will wonder how they would master similar challenges to their own entrepreneurial plans and expectations. The case can be taught in either one or two sessions of a 90-minute MBA course or a four-hour executive education class.

Students at all levels explore the psychology of entrepreneurship and new product branding and marketing as a young IBM executive decides whether to become an entrepreneur. He must evaluate his business plan; seek advisors; and decide how much money it will take to get started. His product idea? On-the-go water for dogs. With market research complete and a team of advisors assembled, he must decide whether to take the plunge.

The case chronicles the development of Lumni, Inc., an international start-up offering innovative mechanisms for financing higher education. It focuses on: the details of decision making required to transform an idea into a viable business; building partnerships; the challenge associated with raising venture capital; and the challenges of creating a new market where human capital can be traded to finance higher education.

Entrepreneurial action under uncertainty has captured the interest of scholars and practitioners alike. However, this growing body of research has yet to connect entrepreneurial action with actual actions of entrepreneurs. We combine insights from effectuation theory and the psychology of entrepreneurship to investigate drivers of entrepreneurial actions involved in starting and running ventures, particularly optimism, self-efficacy and the use of causal and effectual logics.

The study employs a unique mixed-method approach combining a survey with experience sampling data. After measuring demographics, preference for effectual or causal logics and psychological variables, the 197 US entrepreneurs sampled entrepreneurs logged their daily actions in the form of asks during 60 consecutive days.

Results suggest that self-efficacy and causal logics are key drivers of entrepreneurial actions, while optimism serves as a deterrent. Interestingly, the impact of self-efficacy on actions is moderated by the entrepreneur’s experience level, measured both in years and past asking experience.

The potential of the ask as the basic mechanism for entrepreneurial actions is explored. Based on the findings, the authors offer new and fertile insights by linking psychological traits to entrepreneurial actions, causal and effectual logics and entrepreneurial expertise development.

This study explains the international opportunity development of SMEs from emerging economies during institutional transition. This research enriches our understanding of how these firms adopt different approaches to developing international opportunities when they confront the turbulent institutional environment. We develop a phase-based framework for the evolution of transitional institution for SMEs’ internationalization and the SMEs’ internationalization process in that framework. By providing an empirical case study of a privately owned SME from China, the main finding is that SMEs from emerging economies become more entrepreneurial and proactive in developing the international opportunity during the institutional transition.

The “innovator's dilemma” suggests that by listening to current customers leading firms often lose their markets to upstart newcomers as a result. The purpose of this paper is to understand how entrepreneurs successfully create such upstart firms and new markets, since this ought to have direct implications for theorizing about the innovator's dilemma.

The paper examines implications of recent studies in entrepreneurial expertise that show expert entrepreneurs use an effectual logic of non‐predictive control. It then connects these ideas to notions of firms and markets as artifacts of entrepreneurial action. Finally, it describes the implications of these concepts for the innovation strategies of large corporations, and specifically for firms periodically facing the innovator's dilemma.

The findings suggest that the practical answer to the innovator's dilemma is not to predict technology trajectories more accurately, or otherwise strive to build immortal firms in mortal markets. Instead, innovation managers should focus on building new markets. This will inevitably involve pluralizing decision‐making technologies by including some aspects of effectual decision making (used by expert entrepreneurs) into the decision‐making processes of large firms.

It is the basic contention of this paper that the innovator's dilemma is not the story it is usually portrayed as, i.e. technology commercialization. Instead, the core issue is investing in and building new markets. The paper brings a novel theoretical framework (from entrepreneurship) to bear on this problem.

This paper investigates how various emergent theoretical perspectives in entrepreneurship research, representing diverse decision-making logics, influence firm growth and evolution. It explores the interaction among decision-making logics, including experimentation, affordable loss, flexibility and pre-commitment as components of effectuation, alongside causation and bricolage and their synergistic effects on firm growth.

This study uses a multi-phase, discovery-oriented approach. Initially, insights from existing literature on decision-making logic were combined with in-depth interviews with 10 Iranian entrepreneurs within the food sector. This phase used alternative template research to evaluate the principles of effectuation, causation and bricolage within case study data depicting firm growth. Subsequently, a self-administered survey was developed based on these insights and distributed to 205 entrepreneurs in Iran. The survey data was analysed using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to identify key factors and pathways influencing firm growth.

Using a discovery-oriented approach, this study formulates a comprehensive framework detailing decision-making logics that influence firm growth. Through fsQCA, 12 distinct paths are identified, highlighting the complex interplay of causation, effectuation and bricolage in high-growth firms within the food sector.

This study has limitations. FsQCA identifies only logically sufficient combinations, suggesting potential for exploring alternative pathways in future research. Given COVID-19’s impact on the food sector, examining decision-making logic across diverse contexts and industries is advisable. Additionally, exploring how bricolage, causation and effectuation affect outcomes like new product development and innovation is essential in a growth-focused context. It is also important to consider environmental and organizational factors influencing growth.

This paper pioneers the examination of emerging theoretical paradigms in entrepreneurship and their impact on firm growth. It identifies critical configurations of causation, effectuation and bricolage, providing actionable insights for navigating dynamic business environments.

The purpose of this paper is to share a personal perspective on the 2011 Academy of Management meeting held in San Antonio, Texas. It explores the author's experience of the conference theme of “West meets East: Enlightening, Balancing and Transcending” as well as providing a doctoral student's overall reflections of a major conference.

The paper uses a constructivist perspective in order to reflect upon conference experiences. Observations and the gathering of conference materials helped inform the approach.

This paper argued that the Academy of Management Annual meeting is likely to have a lasting impact on the author. The author was inspired to continue to discover how to become an engaged scholar and practitioner, as well as broadening her understanding of East‐West management practices and cultures.

This paper has value as it presents a personal perspective of a first‐year doctoral student attending her first large, international conference.