O presente trabalho teve por objetivo compreender o comportamento dos empreendedores no processo de gestão estratégica de seus negócios e a influência de suas experiências como executivos de empresas consolidadas. Para tanto, avaliaram-se as ações executadas por eles na condução das várias etapas deste processo na ótica das abordagens effectuation e causation. A estratégia do empreendedor não é planejada de maneira coerente ou prescrita de maneira determinista, portanto há necessidade de se considerarem abordagens que compreendam o comportamento empreendedor segundo uma visão não determinística e não linear. A abordagem estratégica transformativa effectuation propõe um processo empreendedor orientado para a ação e de maneira não-preditiva, tomando decisões a partir de escolhas entre os efeitos que podem ser produzidos de um dado conjunto de meios. Já a abordagem clássica causation sugere que os comportamentos sigam um planejamento estruturado para atingir um objetivo preexistente (SARASVATHY, 2001a; WILTBANK et al., 2006). Para atingir o objetivo do estudo, foi realizada uma pesquisa qualitativa de caráter exploratório com nove empreendedores e, como resultado, verificou-se que os comportamentos baseados na lógica effectuation foram predominantes entre os entrevistados. Concluiu-se que os empreendedores dão início aos seus negócios com objetivos mais amplos e ambíguos, e foram construindo a empresa por meio de parcerias, a adaptação ou criação de novos objetivos, respondendo às contingências e oportunidades que surgiram no caminho. / This study aimed to understand the entrepreneurial behavior in the process of strategic management of their business and the influence of their experiences as executives in consolidated companies. Therefore, we evaluated the actions performed by the entrepreneur in conducting the various stages of this process from the perspective of effectuation and causation approaches. The entrepreneur\'s strategy is not planned in a coherent or deterministically prescribed manner, so there is a need to consider approaches that understand entrepreneurial behavior in a non-deterministic, non-linear view. The transformative strategic effectuation approach proposes an action-oriented and non-predictive entrepreneurial process, making decisions from choices among the effects that can be produced from a given set of means. The classical causation approach, however, suggests that entrepreneurial behaviors follow structured planning to achieve a pre-existing goal (SARASVATHY, 2001a; WILTBANK et al., 2006). To reach the study objective, a qualitative exploratory research was carried out with nine entrepreneurs. As results, it was verified that behaviors based on the logic effectuation were predominant among the entrepreneurs interviewed. It was concluded that entrepreneurs start their business with broader and more ambitious goals, and they built the company through partnership, and adaptation or creation of new objectives, using the contingencies and opportunities that arose along the way.

This study’s main purpose is to explore what young individuals need/require when becoming entrepreneurs. To do that, the views and perspectives of students, senior entrepreneurs and incubators were analyzed. This study’s main contribution is to the knowledge and understanding of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial education. Furthermore, this study has a practical application in the form of a suggestion on how to improve this study’s empirical case: a new project designed by the pre-incubator office Drivhuset Uppsala. Methodologically, a qualitative research study with interviews as its main technique indicates this study’s main findings and conclusions. What young individuals need/require in order to become entrepreneurs is; putting the theories they are learning or have learned into action, learning through entrepreneurship in the form of learning-by-doing and feeling the support in creating values from the entrepreneurial environment; called ‘the entrepreneurial ecosystem’ by one of this study’s actors. Theories indicate the importance of incubators participating in entrepreneurial education in different forms. UU incubators are, by the actors of this study, not perceived to do that. These conclusions proved to be complicated and are recommended as important topics for further research. This study focuses on Uppsala and incubators connected to UU. The empirical material was analyzed with the Venture Creation in learning-by- doing and Effectuation theories, and the findings indicate that Drivhuset Uppsala should focus on venture creation programs in designing their new project.

Early entrepreneurship studies have often regarded entrepreneurs as a homogeneous group. More recently, scholars have recognised that entrepreneurs have different ownership propensity. Portfolio entrepreneurs, a sub-type of the habitual entrepreneur, are involved in a number of businesses simultaneously. By their very nature, these entrepreneurs are more experienced than their novice counterparts and studying them should enhance understanding of entrepreneurship. This thesis aims to explore why and how some individuals become portfolio entrepreneurs. The investigation is guided by a conceptual framework that explores the theoretical antecedents (e.g., human and social capital, motivation and risk) to portfolio entrepreneurship, how they engage in the entrepreneurial processes (e.g., opportunity search and recognition, entry and operational strategies) and the outcomes (e.g., business and personal) of their entrepreneurial activities. This is a qualitative study using a multiple case approach. Fifteen cases of portfolio entrepreneurs were selected and interviewed in-depth. Results show that portfolio entrepreneurs do have a distinct combination of human and social capital endowments, motivation and risk propensity. These antecedents allow them to formulate strategies that pave the way to portfolio development. While the reasons for the pursuit of the portfolio model vary across the different portfolios, it is evident that the portfolio is a result of the entrepreneur's opportunity and growth-seeking pursuits and a way to spread the risk inherent in business. The study reports strategies and heuristics that these entrepreneurs employ to manage the dynamics of a portfolio structure. At the business level, outcomes indicate that individual business benefit from being part of a portfolio. At a personal level, successful portfolio entrepreneurs do become high net worth individuals. Although financial motivation is evident at the early stages of their careers, money no longer features in later stages. Their satisfaction levels are high, and regrets are almost non-existent. They enjoy being in business and thrive in the many challenges that new products, systems, solutions and ways of doing things bring to the market and society.

This article is about immigrant entrepreneurs and their way through business life in an unfamiliar business world. Focusing on the region of Växjö, Sweden the article presents different attitudes of immigrant entrepreneurs and shows common problems and barriers. The article investigates how immigrant entrepreneurs’ deal with their daily life and what they struggled with in the past. What kind of barriers do immigrants face when they leave their home country? The overall aim is to research what support is needed in order to help regional immigrant entrepreneurs with their business. Therefore this article highlights barriers which immigrant entrepreneurs struggle with. As the regional support programs influence the path of business life the article presents their perspective as well. These supporters have a lot of experience in dealing with immigrant entrepreneurs which can be used to investigate improvements. As the most outstanding result, this article presents the importance of overall integration in the host country. The way through business life for immigrant entrepreneurs is characterized by an effectual logic but the support to entrepreneurs is often based on a causation-logic. Therefore the support givers should consider focusing on the individual entrepreneurs and the surroundings that influence the integration.

Detta arbete undersöker utmaningar företag ställs inför efter en tid av snabb tillväxt. Det görsgenom att undersöka företag som blivit tilldelade Dagens Industris Gasell-pris för snabbtillväxt men vars omsättning senare stagnerat eller minskat under en period. Fokus ligger påatt undersöka hur företagen hanterat utmaningarna. Teorier kring utvecklingsfaser inomföretag och beslutsprocesser har använts för att analysera företagens tillvägagångssätt.Arbetet använder kvalitativa metoder där fyra personer med ledande roller på fyra företag harintervjuats. Resultaten visar att beroende på utvecklingstakt och marknad så ser utvecklingenolika ut från företag till företag men gemensamt för företagen i denna studie är att samtligahar tagit ett steg tillbaka och hanterat utmaningen med hjälp av tidigare erfarenheter.

Submitted by Automa??o e Estat?stica (sst@bczm.ufrn.br) on 2017-03-14T21:06:42Z No. of bitstreams: 1 LuisManuelEstevesDaRochaVieira_DISSERT.pdf: 2340656 bytes, checksum: cb0e64296449b107ad0fc678c9a57a10 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Arlan Eloi Leite Silva (eloihistoriador@yahoo.com.br) on 2017-03-15T21:12:48Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 LuisManuelEstevesDaRochaVieira_DISSERT.pdf: 2340656 bytes, checksum: cb0e64296449b107ad0fc678c9a57a10 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-03-15T21:12:48Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 LuisManuelEstevesDaRochaVieira_DISSERT.pdf: 2340656 bytes, checksum: cb0e64296449b107ad0fc678c9a57a10 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-07-28 / Startups da ?rea de tecnologia est?o inseridas em ambientes altamente din?micos, marcados pela incerteza, onde as tradicionais predi??es do futuro para a tomada de decis?o se tornam demasiadamente complexas, dif?ceis e distantes da realidade. Sendo assim, acredita-se que esse empreendedor estaria mais propenso a adotar uma l?gica decis?ria predominantemente effectual, contrariando o paradigma atual ao enfrentar a incerteza por meio da constru??o de um ambiente e conjunto de relacionamentos que ir?o, como efeito, desencadear cen?rios futuros pr?ximos aos aspirados inicialmente. Este estudo tem ent?o como objetivo verificar como empreendedores de startups de tecnologia incubadas empregam a l?gica effectual nas tomadas de decis?o e qual a influ?ncia da incuba??o nesse processo. Para tanto, foi realizada uma pesquisa de casos m?ltiplos, descritiva, onde foram analisados qualitativamente o conte?do dos discursos obtidos em entrevistas semiestruturadas junto a oito startups incubadas na Inova Metr?pole em Natal/RN. Como resultado foi poss?vel identificar como principais caracter?sticas dos empreendedores ?tica e Honestidade; Resili?ncia, Perseveran?a e Persist?ncia; Motiva??o, Paix?o, Vontade e Entusiasmo; Transpar?ncia; Flexibilidade e Adaptabilidade, onde os principais motivos para empreendedor foram poder transformar o meio ajudando pessoas, e a emo??o e dinamicidade da vida empreendedora. Destacou-se tamb?m a tend?ncia ? coopera??o e parceria no desenvolvimento de produtos, servi?os e evolu??o do modelo de neg?cio das startups, direcionando-os em fun??o da demanda. Al?m disso, verificou-se que a incubadora ? uma grande aliada estrat?gica, potencializando recursos (meios) para que as incubadas atinjam novos patamares. / Technology Startups are embedded in highly dynamic environments, marked by uncertainty where traditional predictions of the future are too complex for decision-making them far from reality. Thus, it is believed that the entrepreneur would be more likely to adopt a predominantly effectual logic, against the current paradigm to face the uncertainty by building an environment and set of relationships that will, in effect, trigger future objectives close to the ones originally aspirated. This study has the objective of verifying how incubated technology startups entrepreneurs use effectual logic in decision making and the influence of incubation in this process. Therefore, a multiple case descriptive study was carried out, and the content in the speeches of the eight startups incubated at Inova Metropole in Natal / RN produced through semi-structured interviews was qualitatively analyzed. As a result it was possible to identify the main characteristics of entrepreneurs: Ethics and Honesty; Resilience, Perseverance and Persistence; Motivation, Passion, Will and Enthusiasm; Transparency; Flexibility and Adaptability. The main reasons for entrepreneurs starting their companies were being able to transform society and helping people, and also the excitement and dynamism of the entrepreneurial life. It was also noticed the tendency to cooperation and partnership in the development of products, services and evolution of the business model startups, by analyzing demand. Furthermore, it was found that an incubator is strategically allied, increasing resources (means) that make possible for the incubated to reach new heights.

Denna uppsats undersöker strategier vid marknadsinträde för startups och vilka resultat det ger i olika delar av processen. Teoridelen fokuserar på strategin effektualitet som lyfter vikten av relationer, flexibilitet och experimentering. Detta i kontrast till strategin kausalitet som baseras på teorier som importerats från ekonomiska teorier med linjärt förvalda mål som är utformade för etablerade marknader. En multipel fallstudie har utförts på två svenska tech-startups i Stockholmsområdet där grundarna har intervjuats. Resultatet visar att de studerade startups har dragit nytta av att använda en effektuellt strategi, därmed finns det implikationer att denna strategi är fördelaktig att använda för vissa typer av företag. Strategin är fördelaktig på grund av att den förespråkar fokus på samarbeten som leder till utveckling av värdefull kunskap som i sin tur ger konkurrensfördelar samt ökar sannolikheten för att skapa en unik produkt som det finns efterfrågan på. Resultatet visar även att kausalitet och effektualitet samverkar med varandra och därmed är inte kausalitet oviktigt för startups. Det gäller att ha rätt balans beroende på var i utvecklingen startupen befinner sig och hur branschen ser ut. Implikationer givet resultatet antyder att nystartade företag kan dra nytta av denna insikt för att öka sin chans att överleva på marknaden. Det bör också belysas en bredare syn på marknader på de kurser som lär ut entreprenörskap.

The present study aims to analyse the marketing strategies of Swedish microbreweries and relate them to the entrepreneurial principles of effectuation and causation. The authors investigated eight microbreweries in Mälardalsregionen of Sweden, conducting interviews with members of the founding team or the management team at the microbreweries. The results of the study show that most breweries used effectual principles to describe their marketing efforts. Two effectual principles in particular, bird-in-hand and affordable loss, were shown to be present throughout the sample. Furthermore, most microbrewery founders did not give a lot of importance to marketing and considered it to be a part of everyday activities of the brewery rather than a separate organisational function. There was a direct correlation between the size of the microbrewery and its debts, and the marketing efforts of the microbrewery. Based on these results, the authors propose: (1) Microbrewery founders use effectual logics more than causational logics in their marketing efforts; and (2) Microbrewery founders with unawareness or lack of knowledge of the causational methods are more likely to go about their marketing activities using effectual logic.

There is a critical need for entrepreneurial action to stimulate the economy, this study aimed to investigate how entrepreneurs make decisions, how they perceive financial risk and how their decision-making linked to their risk profile translates into their firms’ financial growth. To do this study had to firstly, understand how entrepreneurs make decisions. Sarasvathy's (2001) seminal work in this field distinguished between entrepreneurs who follow an effectuation or a causation decision making process. Causation is compared to puzzle building where all the pieces are there, but needs to be assembled. Whereas effectuation is compared to patchwork quilting where the entrepreneur need to develop the opportunity while constantly changing direction as new information becomes available. The findings showed that causation logic is more common in terms of decision making with entrepreneurs, which is contrary to findings of Sarasvathy (2001). Secondly, this study set out to understand how entrepreneurs perceive financial risk by measuring their financial risk tolerance levels. This was measured independently for entrepreneurs following the effectuation as well as a causation approach. The results indicated that the majority of entrepreneurs were ranked in the moderate risk taking category according to the FinaMetrica model. Entrepreneurs who follow causation logic had a greater aptitude for risk than their counterparts who followed an effectuation approach. Thirdly, this study determined whether a statistically significant correlation existed between the decision-making approach, risk tolerance levels and the financial growth achieved by the entrepreneurial firm. This study did not find a statistically significant relationship between these constructs. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

The recent increase in effectuation research shows the popularity and potential of this body of knowledge. This new paradigm is trying to challenge the established traditional causal knowledge, taught in many MBA and higher education courses. As attractive as effectuation- might be, it is necessary to acknowledge the importance of the traditional knowledge, such as causation. In this study we focus on understanding how expert entrepreneurs -those individuals who deal and use these effectuation and causation dimensions in their daily routines- give advice to new upcoming entrepreneurs, in addition to investigating if and how they combine both dimensions in their decision-making advice to achieve more well-rounded and supported recommendations. This was done in this empirical study through the exploratory analysis of internet sourced interviews with expert entrepreneurs about how to become an entrepreneur or how to start a business. We find that expert entrepreneurs tend to give advice to new entrepreneurs in an effectual manner. Furthermore, our study contributes to extent knowledge by offering a new approach to effectual studies based on previously validated methods with the introduction of a new database and perspective. In addition, we explore the distribution within the entrepreneurial population when it comes to advice-giving.