Overcoming Path Dependency with Entrepreneurial Self Efficacy
Path dependency is an unfortunate behavior (Choi, 2011) Although researchers acknowledge the omnipresent nature of path dependent behavior (Gruber, 2010) especially in innovation processes and organizational developments (Mishina et al. 2012; Thrane et al. 2010) little research on understanding path dependency in the context of entrepreneurial and managerial decision making was carried out so far. Therefore, understanding antecedents and environmental conditions is the main focus of our research. This paper studies path dependent behavior when selecting and combining means to solve entrepreneurial and managerial problems under different conditions. We focus on entrepreneurial self efficacy (McGee et al. 2009) as its subdimensions can be utilized to distinguish entrepreneurs from managers (Chen et al. 1998) To account for several environmental conditions, we designed a unique experimental questionnaire inducing four specific scenarios in temporal order. We hypothesize that path dependency can be burst in specific situations.