Effectuation and causation configurations for business model innovation: Addressing COVID-19 in the gastronomy industry

Rainer Harms*, Carina Alfert, Cheng Feng Cheng, Sascha Kraus

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

64 Citations (Scopus)
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Abstract

The gastronomy sector is among those that are hit particularly hard by a loss of customers and regulatory uncertainty of the COVID-19 crisis. When established ways of doing business become almost impossible, business model innovation (BMI) is a possible reaction to this high uncertainty level. Effectuation and causation are decision-making logics that may lead to BMI and help a firm navigate uncertainty. We investigate configurations of causation and effectuation components associated with a high BMI level during the first wave of COVID-19. We perform fuzzy-set-qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) on a sample of 143 gastronomy entrepreneurs in Münster county, Germany. We identify two paths that lead to a high BMI level: “the planning soloist” and “the hedging networker.” We conclude that innovators among the gastronomy entrepreneurs use effectuation and causation components in complex configurations.

Original languageEnglish
Article number102896
JournalInternational journal of hospitality management
Volume95
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - May 2021

Keywords

  • UT-Hybrid-D
  • Configurations
  • COVID-19
  • Effectuation
  • fsQCA
  • Gastronomy entrepreneurs
  • Business model innovation

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