A new intersection in family business: causation, effectuation and entrepreneurial bricolage approaches

Abstract

This chapter is a theoretical attempt to merge life cycle theory in family firms with three entrepreneurial approaches, specifically causation, effectuation and bricolage. Propositions are introduced based on the characteristics that family firms display in certain stages and the conceptual postulates of these entrepreneurial approaches. According to the conceptual model, family firms use the same dominant approaches as non-family firms. However, the use of auxiliary approaches in the early and middle stages in family firms differs from non-family firms. Particularly, causation is applied more extensively in the early stages and effectuation and bricolage are utilized more extensively in the middle stages of a family firm’s development in contrast to non-family firms. These results have further implications for theory improvement and empirical exploration.