Thinking different

2014

René Mauer

We finally know how they do it: they think different! In essence, ‘thinking different’ is what has been brought to the literature as entrepreneurial expertise under the brand of ‘effectuation’. With an understanding of entrepreneurship as opportunity creation, effectuation explains how experienced entrepreneurs think and eventually act in this process. As this chapter is about thinking different, it first provides some background in cognitive psychology before presenting how research on thinking different in entrepreneurship – as opposed to (for example) in management – has emerged and developed in the form of effectuation. The chapter then asks questions that are important in advancing the concept and in clarifying whether thinking different is a fad or a paradigm in the field of entrepreneurship. The chapter closes with a short guideline to the literature for newcomers to the topic.

link to abstract