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The aim of this study is to understand how artisanal food entrepreneurs acting as businesses, which are grounded in the logic of profit and growth, navigate the anti-growth constraints of artisanal logic. The study answers the research question of, how and when do the artisanal entrepreneurs respond to tensions between the small-scale craftsmanship logic and the business growth logic?

This study consists of two cases of artisanal food entrepreneurs situated in rural regions of Sweden. The empirical material is collected through interviews, observations and secondary sources. The analysis consists of two steps: a narrative analysis and a categorization of institutional logics using Pache and Santos (2013) framework.

Our findings show that the artisanal food entrepreneurs used several types of response to the tensions between the two institutional logics. As businesses grew, business growth logic increasingly penetrated the companies' operations. They responded by combining and blending the two logics and avoided growing too large themselves by collaborating with suppliers and local farmers. In addition, other activities needed to be compartmentalized and hidden since these activities could threaten their business images and their own criteria for small-scale food artisans.

Much work on how different institutional logics affect businesses have been on a structural level. This study answers the call on that more research is needed on an individual level by studying how individuals interpret logics and use them in their business activities.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the logics that expert entrepreneurs use when faced with a critical incident threat.

Attempts have been made to define “entrepreneurial logic”. This paper is influenced by Sarasvathy’s work on high-performance entrepreneurs, which finds that when faced with uncertainty entrepreneurs employ unconventional logic, and encompasses later research acknowledging social contexts where entrepreneurs operate. A typology of decision-making logics is developed, taking into account the situation of crisis. Seven expert entrepreneurs who faced crisis and, despite this, are still successfully operating businesses were interviewed. The paper develops a critical incidents methodology.

Experienced entrepreneurs were found to tend towards causal logic when “the stakes were high” and the decision may affect the survival of their business. They also weigh up options before acting and tend to seek advice from trusted “others” within their network before or after they have made a decision. A mixture of causal and intuitive logic is evident in decisions dealing with internal business problems.

The decisions that entrepreneurs make shape and define their business and their ability to recover from crisis. If researchers can develop an understanding of how entrepreneurs make decisions – what information they draw upon, what support systems they use and the logic of their decision-making and rationalisation – then this can be used to help structure support.

By exploring decision-making through critical incidents we offer an innovative way to understand context-rich, first-hand experiences and behaviours of entrepreneurs around a focal point.

As the developing nations grow and experience rapid institutional transformation, research has begun to investigate the roles of culture, cognition and institutional context on entrepreneurship and innovation. This chapter aims to advance the entrepreneurial cognition literature by juxtaposing entrepreneurial effectuation, domain-specific expertise and ambiguity. By conducting a qualitative study of Chinese high-tech domestic and returnee entrepreneurs, the authors propose a spectrum between causation and effectuation and argue that the entrepreneur’s perceived level of ambiguity may better explain differing logic orientations among entrepreneurs, contributing to our understanding of entrepreneurial cognition. The authors theorize that (1) individual actors and the level of institutional development jointly comprise the entrepreneur’s logic orientation; (2) the level of perceived ambiguity mediates the strategy adopted by high-tech entrepreneurs; (3) the entrepreneur’s logic orientation can be regarded as a continual spectrum from effectuation to causation. Finally, the logic orientation concept is applied to the context of cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&A) from a process perspective and the implications and fit of logic orientation with the stages of cross-border M&A are discussed.

Drawing on institutional logics theory, this paper aims to examine the determinants of entrepreneurs’ planning behavior in the first years of 212 Spanish new firms. Additionally, this study identifies four different planning profiles: systematic planner, early planner, late planner and non-planner.

This study’s data structure is a (yearly) pooled cross-sectional time series. This paper investigates the determinants of planning behaviors among entrepreneurs, as well as the impact of that activity on new firm performance (i.e. employment growth).

The results confirm the relevance of institutional forces in explaining the involvement of founders of new firms upon planning activities. Institutional factors, in the form of public external support seem to explain early- and systematic-planner behavior while the influence of entrepreneurial family background does so with late-planner behavior.

The authors focus their attention on two key moments of a new venture’ life: the first year of operation and once the firm has overcome the four-year hurdle that is often used to distinguish new from established businesses. Four different patterns emerge: systematic planner (those who consistently plan over time), early planner (those who engage in planning activities in the early moments of the firm’s life but not later), late planner (those who do not plan at the beginning but end up conducting planning activities a few years later) and non-planner (those who never get involved in planning activities). This new division is an interesting additional feature of this study.

Utilizando la teoría de lógica institucional, el presente artículo analiza los factores determinantes del comportamiento planificador de los emprendedores durante los primeros años de operaciones, por lo que se refiere a sus negocios. A tal efecto, identificamos cuatro perfiles planificadores: sistemático, temprano, demorado y no-planificador.

A partir de una muestra de 201 emprendedores españoles se examinan los determinantes del comportamiento planificador y el efecto subsecuente en el desempeño de las empresas.

Los resultados de este artículo ponen de relieve la importancia de las fuerzas institucionales, a la hora de explicar la involucración de éstos en cuanto a la planificación de actividades se refiere. Por un lado, factores institucionales en forma de apoyo público, tienden a explicar el comportamiento del planificador temprano y sistemático, mientras que la influencia del contexto familiar definiría el modo de actuar del planificador-demorado. Asimismo, en este artículo se analiza el impacto de los diferentes perfiles planificadores en el desempeño del crecimiento de empleo de las empresas.

El presente artículo intenta examinar de manera inédita el comportamiento planificador de los emprendedores usando la teoría de lógica institucional. Además, los resultados sugieren que planificar aporta un efecto positivo en el desempeño de las iniciativas emprendedoras.

Tendo por base teórica as lógicas institucionais, este estudo analisa as estratégias de planeamento de empreendedores e seus determinantes nos primeiros anos de atividade. Adicionalmente, identificamos quatro perfis diferentes dependo do tipo de planeamento feito pelo empreendedor: planeador sistemático, planeador antecipado, planeador demorado, e não-planeador.

Com base numa amostra de 201 empreendedores Espanhóis, examinamos os determinantes de comportamentos de planeamento dos empreendedores e os seus impactos no desempenho das empresas.

Os resultados confirmam a relevância de forças institucionais na explicação do envolvimento de fundadores de novas empresas em atividades de planeamento. Fatores institucionais, sob a forma de apoio externo público, parecem explicar comportamentos de planeamento antecipado e sistemático, enquanto que a influência do contexto familiar do empreendedor tende a explicar planeamentos mais demorados. O estudo também analisa o impacto destes perfis de planeamento no desempenho das novas empresas (i.e., crescimento do emprego).

O presente artigo tenciona examinar de uma forma inédita o comportamento de planeamento dos empreendedores com base na teoria da lógica institucional. Adicionalmente, os resultados sugerem que planear tem um efeito positivo no desempenho das iniciativas empreendedoras.

This study enriches the theory of effectuation by discussing the four independent dimensions of effectuation and their relationships with causation. Additionally, we fill the gap in prior literature by showing how entrepreneurial experience moderates the relationship between effectuation and innovativeness of the venture. Our study of 171 practising entrepreneurs regarding their entrepreneurial decision-making logic yielded multiple findings. The authors find that entrepreneurs rely on causation as well as effectuation in their decision-making; the more experienced entrepreneurs are, the more they actually use causation; and entrepreneurial experience moderates the relationship between effectuation and innovativeness of the venture firm.

By taking conventionalist view of the evolution of biotechnology, we suggest that the process by which entrepreneurs determined what made biotechnology valuable and figured out how to organize around such an economic logic was contested. The shape that biotechnology has ultimately taken emerged from the resolution of these contests. Convention theory – as elaborated in Boltanski and Thévenot's (2006) On Justification ¹ – argues that our economy is shaped by participants affecting the rules of economic action. Whereas most economists would argue that the assignment of value underpins any system of exchange, conventionalists suggest that this value is not only given by the principles of optimization but instead can be derived from many possible spheres such as civic duty, attainment of fame, proof of technologic performance, and demonstration of creativity. More specifically, Boltanski and Thévenot (2006, p. 43) claim that the establishment of a particular logic “comes about as a part of a coordinated process that relies on two supports: a common identification of market goods, whose exchange defines the course of action, and a common evaluation of these objects in terms of prices that make it possible to adjust various actions.” Simply put, economic logics embody principles of economic coordination or conventions that guide interpretation of the technology and its value.

The purpose of this study is to examine the decision-making process for entrepreneurial firms when entering foreign markets and how and why they entered those markets.

A nascent theory in entrepreneurship called effectuation is combined with internationalization process theory as the conceptual framework to study decision-making under uncertainty. The central concept in both these theories is relationships and how they can be used to gain knowledge and thus reduce uncertainty and in the case of effectuation to co-create opportunities to enter foreign markets. The research design involves a multiple case study of software firms from Finland and New Zealand.

It was found that entrepreneurs differentiate between foreign market selection and foreign market entry during their internationalization process, potentially using different decision-making processes in them. They tend to interweave effectuation and causation logics as substitutes in their decision-making. Uncertainty during foreign market entry is not always a barrier because it can provide opportunities depending on the logic used. In addition, there is evidence that entrepreneurs who have existing relationships in foreign markets tend to use effectuation to select and enter foreign markets.

This paper transposes effectuation from its original field of entrepreneurship research to the context of internationalizing entrepreneurial firms. Consequently, it contributes toward understanding the decision-making process for selecting and entering foreign markets.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate empirically that differences in characteristics of entrepreneurs result in benefits from different elements of a regional incubator programme.

The authors use mixed methods consisting of in-depth interviews and a survey of 100 incubatees in order to study entrepreneurs within a specific incubator programme called the Growth Factories located in Region Zealand, Denmark.

The authors find that there are significant differences in the perceived benefit of various business incubator elements for incubatees depending on their entrepreneurial characteristics.

Future studies are particularly important in order to learn which elements provide the different kinds of entrepreneurs with a critical factor in determining their success or failure.

The conclusions have importance for regional government and development managers aiming at designing new business incubators. The authors suggest that in order to enhance the effect of incubator programmes they must be tailor-made to the individual entrepreneur.

Previous studies have either tended to treat incubator programmes as a uniform entity, where all entrepreneurs receive the same service, or they have treated all entrepreneurs as a uniform group, even though it is well known that entrepreneurs vary considerably in their characteristics. This paper overcomes the gap.

The aim of this paper is to evaluate critically the extensively used social versus commercial entrepreneurship dualism that depicts these as entirely discrete realms possessing distinct and separate logics.

To challenge this dichotomous representation of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship, empirical data gathered during 865 face‐to‐face interviews in urban and rural deprived and affluent English localities are reported.

Uncovering entrepreneurs’ rationales the finding is that entrepreneurs do not pursue either purely commercial or social goals. Rather, most voice both commercial and social logics when explaining their entrepreneurial endeavour, displaying that there is not a dichotomy but rather a continuum from purely commercial to purely social entrepreneurship. Neither do entrepreneurs’ logics remain static over time. What begins as a commercial entrepreneurial venture may become more socially oriented over time or vice versa. Logics underpinning entrepreneurship also vary socio‐spatially. Those living in deprived populations and rural populations are more socially‐oriented, whilst relatively affluent and urban populations are comparatively more commercially‐driven.

This is only a small sample and the data are not up to date. A more extensive contemporary survey will be required to more fully unravel how commercial and social entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship are not wholly separate and distinct.

The findings raise questions about whether it is appropriate to any longer differentiate between social and commercial entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship, such as in economic policy.

This paper displays the need to transcend the long‐standing commercial versus social entrepreneurship dualism and begins to document how logics of entrepreneurship vary temporally and spatially.

This study aims to investigate the antecedents of the internationalisation strategy i.e., effectuation, causation and bricolage on the international performance of the firm.

In total, the study uses 138 peer-reviewed articles on effectuation, causation, effectual/causal decision-making logics and related issues such as the impact of antecedent factors of international strategy (i.e. effectuation, causation and bricolage) on the international performance of the firm.

Even though the theory of effectuation was formulated in 2001, to a large extent it has still not moved away from the realm of small entrepreneurial firms. The development of effectuation logic has accelerated in recent years, but the bulk of the research still focusses on small entrepreneurial firms rather than on the application of the theory in larger, non-entrepreneurial firms. Furthermore, effectuation theory would benefit from being developed into the realm of psychology and sociology.

This study offers a conceptual model on how effectuation, causation and bricolage influence internationalisation strategy, which, in turn, impacts the international performance of the firm. Furthermore, the study discusses the effectual logic for larger firms. The exponential growth of studies on effectuation during recent years, i.e. 2017 to the first quarter of 2020, shows that researchers have responded to calls by leading authors stating that effectuation theory is a field with great potential for further theoretical developments. This study presents a literature review of the critical issue of the engagement of internationalisation strategies with effectuation, causation, bricolage and the international performance of the firm compared to the earlier literature review for the period 2001–2016 by Matalamäki (2017) and Karami et al. (2019) on effectuation and internationalisation.