Entrepreneurial growth Intention : the role of effectual logic.

The significance of entrepreneurial venture growth in entrepreneurship research has attracted scholarly attention for decades. More recently, policymakers have also shown a keen interest, not just in venture creation, but also in growth-oriented entrepreneurship. At a government level, policymakers are unequivocal about their desire to support growth-oriented start-ups as they are often considered crucial to the economy. Significant resources have, thus, been invested in high growth firms because of their perceived impact on the economy. It, however, appears that these potentials are yet to materialise given the noticeable dearth of high growth firms. While a plethora of literature has been generated to understand high growth firms, the majority of research on entrepreneurial venture growth has, to date, focused mainly on understanding the relationship between venture growth and firm characteristics. Only very little discussion about the phenomenon of growth has been made in relation to the entrepreneur and entrepreneurial decision-making. At the centre of the debate on entrepreneurial decision-making that has focused on venture’s growth is the importance of emotion and cognition, as well as the role they play on such decision-making. While growth decisions are loaded with uncertainties, effectuation offers unorthodox principles that eliminate or reduce uncertainties. The pursuit of growth in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) depends on the entrepreneur’s decision, and such a decision reflects the interaction of passion and motivation. This study examines entrepreneurial passion and motivation factors that influence entrepreneurial growth intention, as well as the role of effectual logic in the formation of this entrepreneurial growth intention. Methodologically, quantitative and qualitative data were collected from 528 SMEs in New Zealand and Australia using Qualtrics, a powerful online survey tool. Data analyses were conducted with a view to generating deeper insights into the experiences of these entrepreneurs. Quantitative data generated in this study were analysed based on a structural equation modelling approach using IBM SPSS AMOS 25. Qualitative data generated in this study were analysed thematically using content analysis (NVivo 12 software). Findings from this study showed the dominance of emotion over cognition in the formation of entrepreneurial decisions. While entrepreneurs acknowledged perceived opportunities that could lead to growth, they also acknowledged the hostile and limiting role of the context (e.g. policies and regulations) in which they operate, hence dwindling motivation to pursue entrepreneurial opportunities that could lead to growth. Ideally, with perceived opportunities, entrepreneurs should decide to pursue growth, but on the contrary, findings from this study indicate that entrepreneurs showed diminishing pursuit of growth. One of the more significant findings that have emerged from this study is that despite the contextual constraint experienced, entrepreneurs are still passionate about developing their firms. Some respondents, however, preferred to be serial entrepreneurs, exalting their founding identity by their willingness to sell off after establishing the firm. Effectual logic was also found to influence the formation of growth intention positively in a context and culture that was less encouraging for entrepreneurial growth