The defense will take place online on Tue November 8, 2022, from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m.
Members of the Thesis Committee:
Chair: Maciej Kisilowski, Department of Economics and Business, CEU
Advisor: Yusaf Akbar, Department of Economics and Business, CEU
External member: Peer Fiss, Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California, USA
Internal examiner: Aysu Senyuz, Department of Economics and Business, CEU
Abstract
My dissertation aims at understanding the process of entrepreneurial decision making, especially the non-predictive approaches, such as the effectuation logic. This dissertation explores every level of the entrepreneurial decision – making, from micro to macro in three separate essays. In the first essay I explore Construal levels as potential antecedents to the selection of meta – cognitive strategies such as effectuation and causation. I use experimental methods to induce the selection of one of the decision – making logics via mindset activation (concrete or abstract). By combining Construal level theory with the Effectuation theory, I facilitate a deeper understanding of these processes on the micro level.
In the second essay, I look at the effects of the choice of the decision – making logic by the entrepreneur on the creation of new markets and the evolution of existing ones. By combining the aspects of complexity theory and effectuation, I first develop topology of the market-space, and then a conceptual model. The interactions of the firms and the coevolution of the market based on complex adaptive system (CAS) offer insights into market evolution. Additionally, I propose explanation of how the position of the agents in the market-space and the type of decision- making they use affect the market evolution.
The aim of Essay 3 is to understand the internationalization processes of multinational corporations and how their choice of decision – making logic affects the outcomes in the new markets. It continues the discussion from the second essay by using an abductive approach to follow a practical case of an EMNE entering multiple new markets. I incorporate internationalization and entrepreneurial dimensions by combining entry mode choices, market and country characteristics, with individual level conditions. Finally, I evaluate the combined effect of these conditions on firm performance by using set theory method fsQCA.
Please contact Andrea Szalay (szalaya@ceu.edu) for ZOOM link.