Navigating Social Entrepreneurship : An Exploration of Causation and Effectuation in Decision-Making

Social entrepreneurship has emerged as a reaction to social problems, these entrepreneurs focus on solving social problems and combining this with doing business. This thesis investigates the decision-making processes of social entrepreneurs through the lenses of causation and effectuation. Utilizing a qualitative research design, interviews were analysed with six social entrepreneurs. By using the following research question: to which extent social entrepreneurs employ causation and effectuation approaches in their decision-making? This study aims to give a better and deeper insight to the decision-making of social entrepreneurs. After analysing and coding of the transcripts the results of this exercise have been studied and researched. The outcome of this exercise and research is that following the five principles of effectuation and their counterpart causation, social entrepreneurs use both of these approaches but use effectuation more than the causation approach. Furthermore, this thesis explores the term social entrepreneur and what this term actually means in practice.