On Lachmannian and Effectual Entrepreneurship: A Rejoinder to Sarasvathy and Dew (2008)

The authors welcome the comments of Professors Sarasvathy and Dew (2008) on their recent article, which introduced a new paradigm for entrepreneurship research based on one of the central figures in modern Austrian economics: Ludwig Lachmann (Chiles et al 2007). The authors' purpose in writing the article was to bring together a wide range of disparate entrepreneurship concepts under a single new conceptual framework, and to provide greater coherence and theoretical underpinnings to entrepreneurship research. In doing so, the authors described connections between a Lachmannian approach to entrepreneurship and numerous extant approaches, including effectuation. The authors find Sarasvathy and Dew's (S&D) discussion of the problems of knowledge, resources, and institutions provocative, and their conclusion about the basis of effectuation revealing. The authors' response to these arguments attempts to further clarify areas of possible confusion and suggests that the Lachmannian and effectuation approaches may share more common ground than S&D realize in some areas and less than they thought in others.