Abstract
The lean startup model emerging from the Silicon Valley recently has become worldwide practice. In this model, search and execution are the two primary activities conducted by entrepreneurial firms. Search activities focus on learning and discovery, such as exploring new customer and market segments, while execution activities focus on implementing well-defined plans and scaling up. Effectuation and causation are two different cognitive approaches an entrepreneur might use to conduct strategic moves. We argue that entrepreneurial effectuation cognition is associated with more search behaviors and that entrepreneurial causation cognition is associated with more execution behaviors. We test these hypotheses in a survey of 160 firms and find evidence in support of our arguments.
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Acknowledgments
We have benefited from the feedback of the participants at the Management Scholars Professional Development Workshop at Oklahoma State University. The authors thank the editor Jiangyong Lu and two reviewers for their excellent guidance. An earlier version of this manuscript was presented at United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE) conference and SBE special issue workshop. The authors also thank Gary Latham, Eric Arseneau, and other conference participants for their comments.
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Yang, X., Sun, S.L. & Zhao, X. Search and execution: examining the entrepreneurial cognitions behind the lean startup model. Small Bus Econ 52, 667–679 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-017-9978-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-017-9978-z