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Effectuation versus causation in entrepreneurial decision-making in chinese context: consideration of impact of family business background and gender

Shao, Chen (2012) Effectuation versus causation in entrepreneurial decision-making in chinese context: consideration of impact of family business background and gender.

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Abstract:A growing body of studies focuses on opportunities discovery and the entrepreneurial decision to exploit them as the essence of entrepreneurial activity. Following this stream of research, I present an exploratory study which observes the impact of family background and gender on Chinese student entrepreneurs in terms of their entrepreneurial decision making to examine student entrepreneurs‘ preferences for causal and effectual logics in the new venture creation process. The dominating view is that entrepreneurial decision making to a large degree varies in response to the unique situational context. In contrast, I am in this paper particularly interested to what extent family business background and difference in gender makes Chinese student entrepreneurs in favor of one decision making logic over another. From this point of departure I develop hypotheses of the expected influence of family business background and gender on Chinese student entrepreneurs‘ preferences for causal and effectual reasoning (It was expected that the Chinese student entrepreneurs without family business background frame decisions using an ―effectual‖ logic; whereas the Chinese student entrepreneurs with family business background are more likely to operate a ―causal process‖ and tend to ―go by existing knowledge‖. Furthermore, Male student entrepreneurs are more likely to be effectuators than the female student entrepreneurs in Chinese context). Fifty Chinese student entrepreneurs were asked to think aloud continuously as they solve typical decision-making problems in creating imaginary new venture called milk tea corner in his or her University. Protocol analysis on this sample gives partial support for the argument that family business background, gender differences have significant influences on Chinese student entrepreneurs‘ decision making. The finding suggests that future research into entrepreneurial decision making should include family business background and gender as contingency variables.
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:85 business administration, organizational science
Programme:Business Administration MSc (60644)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/62144
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