Entrepreneurship Education and Pedagogy—Effectuation in Entrepreneurship Education

Entrepreneurship Education and Pedagogy

CALL FOR PAPERS SPECIAL ISSUE ON

Effectuation in Entrepreneurship Education: Pedagogical Frontiers and Future Directions

Effectuation has fundamentally reshaped our understanding of entrepreneurial action by shifting the focus from predictive strategies to an iterative, stakeholder-driven approach emphasizing cocreative commitments, leveraging contingencies, and exercising control (Sarasvathy, 2001). However, while there is a vast and growing body of academic research on effectuation, not all of it gets translated in productive ways for teaching and practice. This special issue seeks to push the frontiers of effectuation pedagogy by inviting contributions that drive theoretical advancements, offer new empirical insights, and innovative teaching methodologies.

We seek to advance the conversation of how effectuation is taught, learned, and practiced in entrepreneurship education in various ways. First, the growth of effectuation research and our understanding of its uses and benefits in practice indicates the need for teaching effectual thinking and action is increasing exponentially. Second, as uncertainty continues to expand in business environments and markets, effectuation education provides a unique methodology for students to thrive in such conditions. By adding a new methodological tool for educators, existing entrepreneurial skills can be better acquired, new ones created, and a variety of outcomes impacted, from increasing a student's intent to start a new venture to enabling communities to tackle societal problems. Third, while there has been a call to expand effectuation education beyond entrepreneurship courses (Cowden et al., 2021), there are as yet few guides for educators, especially non-entrepreneurship educators, to bring effectuation into the classroom.

We wish to keep this call for papers broad enough to capture the interest of the effectuation community. Simultaneously, we would like to attract contributions from the larger community of scholars and educators who may be researching, teaching, or practicing effectuation-related aspects. Below, we offer a useful but non-exhaustive list of topics to guide potential contributions:

• Navigating and transforming uncertainty as a skill. The notion of Knightian true uncertainty is at the core of effectuation theory (Sarasvathy, 2008; Townsend et al., 2018). In a world increasing in uncertainty, training students not only to avoid or overcome but also to transform it into new opportunities would be crucial. Educating students or training aspiring entrepreneurs may therefore benefit from embedding foundational elements such as different levels and dimensions of uncertainty.
• Multidextrous entrepreneurship teaching. The entrepreneurial method encompasses several actionable tools that include effectuation (Sarasvathy, 2024). We welcome contributions that discuss how effectuation can be taught in the context of the entrepreneurial methods in combination with other popular tools in entrepreneurship education (e.g., Bricolage, Design Thinking, Business Model Canvas), innovation management (e.g., Innovator's Way), or strategy (e.g., Blue Ocean). Further, contributions that explore the implications of teaching contrasting tools (e.g., Business Planning, Lean Startup, Market Opportunity Navigator, Disciplined Entrepreneurship), examining the potential benefits or drawbacks of such ambidextrous approaches, are equally relevant.
• Co-creating the ecosystem. While entrepreneurship tends to highlight individual and new venture teams, and others shift the attention to the environmental conditions in which entrepreneurs operate (e.g., entrepreneurial ecosystems, external enablers, etc.), effectuation emphasizes intersubjective interactions between internal and external stakeholders to co- create new environments. We welcome contributions exploring the conceptual commonalities and differences between these approaches and the practical implications for educating If effectual entrepreneurs rely on cocreative commitment from self- selected stakeholders, then understanding how those came to be is crucial in teaching effectuation.
• Measuring outputs of effectuation pedagogy. Effectuation theory originated from a systematic observation of what expert entrepreneurs learn through their experience (Sarasvathy, 2008). A substantial body of academic research has attempted to explore the impact of effectual action in venture performance (Smolka et al., 2018), gestation speed (Mauer et , 2021), new product development (Berends et al., 2014), or internationalization (Galkina & Chetty, 2015). We welcome contributions that explore how effectual action can be measured and its outcomes in the context of entrepreneurship education and, in particular, within the typical constraints of a classroom setting.

Suggested Research Questions

We invite contributions addressing (but not limited to) the following research questions:

• How can effectuation be effectively introduced and integrated into entrepreneurship education or other fields such as science education or the arts?
• What pedagogical techniques (e.g., case studies, simulations, project-based learning) are most effective for teaching effectuation and/or its parts?
• How do different teaching approaches impact students' ability to think and act effectually?
• What assessment methods can be used to measure the effectiveness of effectuation-based teaching?
• What measurement(s) are apt to assess the effectiveness of effectuation teaching?
• How do institutional and cultural factors influence the teaching and learning of effectuation? And how does teaching effectuation transform those factors?
• How can digital tools, AI, and online learning environments support effectuation pedagogy?
• What are the experiences and challenges of educators implementing effectuation in the classroom?
• How can effectuation pedagogy be applied to social entrepreneurship, impact-driven ventures, and other contexts beyond traditional commercial business startups?
• How can effectuation and other approaches (e.g., Lean Startup, Business Model Canvas) be effectively integrated in entrepreneurship education, and when should one be emphasized over another?
• How can entrepreneurship educators train students to navigate, leverage and transform radical uncertainty?

Submission Process and Deadlines:

Submissions are to be made directly to the journal at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/eex. Please select the appropriate special issue when submitting your article. In your cover letter, indicate whether your submission should be considered under the "research" or "learning innovations" track of the special issue. Manuscripts will be reviewed according to the EEP double-blind review process, and submissions should be prepared using the EEP Manuscript Submission Guidelines: https://journals-sagepub-com.proxy.library.ju.se/author-instructions/eex

Contact Information

For inquiries regarding this special issue, please contact specialissue@effectuation.org. 

REFERENCES

Berends, H., Jelinek, M., Reymen, I., & Stultiëns, R. (2014). Product Innovation Processes in Small Firms: Combining Entrepreneurial Effectuation and Managerial Causation. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 31(3), 616–635. https://doi-org.proxy.library.ju.se/10.1111/jpim.12117

Cowden, B., Hiatt, M., Swaim, J., & Quinet, G. (2021). Effectively introducing effectuation into the MBA curriculum. Annals of Entrepreneurship Education and Pedagogy—2021; Edward Elgar Publishing: Cheltenham, UK, 80–93.

Galkina, T., & Chetty, S. (2015). Effectuation and Networking of Internationalizing SMEs.

Management International Review, 55(5), 647–676. https://doi-org.proxy.library.ju.se/10.1007/s11575-015- 0251-x

Mauer, R., Nieschke, S., & Sarasvathy, S. D. (2021). Gestation in new technology ventures: Causal brakes and effectual pedals. Journal of Small Business Management, 1–36.

Sarasvathy, S. D. (2008). Effectuation: Elements of Entrepreneurial Expertise. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Smolka, K. M., Verheul, I., Burmeister–Lamp, K., & Heugens, P. P. M. A. R. (2018). Get it Together! Synergistic Effects of Causal and Effectual Decision–Making Logics on Venture Performance. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 42(4), 571–604. https://doi-org.proxy.library.ju.se/10.1177/1042258718783429

Townsend, D. M., Hunt, R. A., McMullen, J. S., & Sarasvathy, S. D. (2018). Uncertainty, knowledge problems, and entrepreneurial action. Academy of Management Annals, 12(2), 659–687.