Culture and entrepreneurial processses: evidence of influence

Processes that lead to the creation of new ventures are characterized by a combination of planned (causation) and emergent (effectuation) actions. Which one prevails is among others depending on contextual factors such as industry and national culture. Research on the impact of national culture on the causational respectively effectual nature of the entrepreneurial process is lacking. We collected think-aloud protocols from novice entrepreneurs who started their venture while still being a student at a university of who just finished their university studies Vietnam and The Netherlands. Coding of the protocols is based on the categories originally used by Sarasvathy. We correlate the share of causation-type actions with characteristics from national culture, drawn from Hofstede. Preliminary results show systematic differences in the share of causation new venture creation processes. These results are relevant to raise awareness among entrepreneurs and educators that taken-for-granted assumptions about entrepreneurial processes are culturally shaped