Entrepreneurial marketing: essays on the scientific development and the integration of predictive and non-predictive decision-making in startup firms / submitted by Luca Alexander Breit, M.Sc.

Breit, Luca Alexander

Startups are critical for driving innovation and economic development, as well as bringing novel products and services to market. Considering their vast importance, understanding the factors that enhance their performance and support their growth is essential. Generally, entrepreneurship and marketing thought have developed separately, each contributing valuable insights to business development and outcomes. As early as the 1980s though, we had indications of the complementarity of these research fields, accompanied by calls for more integrated approaches. Entrepreneurial marketing (EM) emerged from this interface, with particular relevance for small, resource-constrained companies. As the EM domain has developed into an independent research field, it has offered unique insights for firms facing competitive environments and turbulent conditions. With this cumulative dissertation, I aim to provide an in-depth literature review of recent advances pertaining to EM in and by startups, with a particular focus on identifying factors that can effectively support performance and foster growth.Such a cumulative approach is critical, because the inherently multidisciplinary nature of EM has led to fragmentation across various theories, approaches, and research objects. Accordingly, the first aim of this dissertation is to contribute to the development and consolidation of the EM field by providing a systematic literature review that captures the current state of research, then establishes a strong foundation for both the subsequent articles in this dissertation and further research. Reflecting the themes derived from this review, the second objective of this dissertation is to examine individual decision-making logics and strategic EM orientations in the context of startups, which have received limited attention to date, and to shed light on their pertinent influences on entrepreneurial performance.This dissertation presents three interconnected studies that reflect my attempts to achieve these research objectives. The first study offers a systematic literature review of EM by analyzing 207 peer-reviewed journal articles published between 2010 and 2021. This review consolidates the fragmented research landscape by categorizing EM according to three perspectives: entrepreneur, business, and market. A combination of descriptive and inductive thematic analyses highlights essential themes and offers a critical assessment that identifies avenues for future research. This comprehensive review thus extends prior narrative and bibliometric analyses and supports ongoing work in EM. The insights that it reveals from the entrepreneur’s perspective are particularly relevant, in that they identify effectuation as a suitable theory for EM research. The business perspective also reveals gaps in conceptualizations of strategic EM dimensions and the need to integrate examinations that involve startup firms.The second study then explores how decision-making logics, and specifically the application of non-predictive (effectual) and predictive (causal) principles, can shape entrepreneurial actions. On the basis of 12 semi-structured interviews with startup founders and founder associates in Germany, this study uncovers distinct patterns in EM. Namely, a causation logic dominates but is complemented by effectual reasoning. The third study instead uses a quantitative approach to examine various effects of the chosen decision-making logic and strategic orientation on firm outcomes. A proposed model, linking effectuation, causation, and EM, addresses a gap in extant understanding of how entrepreneurial behavior affects startup performance. Data from 148 founders in various industries reveals that EM is a critical mediator, with direct and indirect effects on enhanced firm outcomes and growth. By integrating a systematic literature analysis with both qualitative and quantitative evidence, this cumulative dissertation advances theoretical understanding and practical applications of EM; the insights contribute to literature on entrepreneurial decision-making and strategic orientation, particularly among growth-oriented new ventures.

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