The role of causation, effectuation and bricolage in new service development processes

This thesis examines the role of different types of entrepreneurial cognitive logics—namely causation, effectuation, and bricolage (CEB)—in new service development (NSD) processes within a new venture. To understand how entrepreneurial cognitive logics are used in the NSD process, I adopt a process research approach to study how service comes to be within a new venture in the healthcare industry. My research employs a range of methods between 2013 and 2017, including observation, interviews, and document analysis.

Within current NSD models, means are not considered as part of processes which lead to new services; instead, the NSD process is assumed to start with a conscious intent to create a new service. My research has identified that NSD processes are often means driven and that the service developers ask themselves means-driven questions considered to represent effectuation logic. Hence, I shift the attention of NSD research from stable and resource-rich environments to dynamic and resource-constrained ones. As a result, I suggest that effectuation and bricolage are key perspectives in understanding NSD in uncertain and resource-scarce environments. In doing so, I challenge the predominantly causation-based formal and linear NSD stage model typically proposed in existing research.

The findings show how CEB logics interplay and shift in a complex manner over time. Situational triggers, resource position, and unanticipated consequences, along with actor-dependent responses to internal and external influences, add to the complexity of how CEB logics interplay and shift over time. Furthermore, researching CEB logics on individual, team, and organisational levels reveals that the different logics may also cause conflict, thus leading not only to positive outcomes but also to frustration and tensions within the new venture.