Effectuation and Causation Decision-Making: A Meta-analysis

Main Article Content

Chaiwat Baimai
Rungtiwa Dechaprakrom

Abstract

This research article aims to (1) analyze research trends of effectuation and causation.  (2) determine effect sizes of firms that apply effectuation and causation theory. We conduct a systematic literature review by searching research articles from SCOPUS, EBSCO Business Insight, and EMERALD databases. As a result of the search, a total of 8,696 related articles were identified. As a result of the initial screening, articles that were not relevant to the research topic—such as non-research-based publications or those falling outside the scope of the business administration discipline—were excluded. A total of 448 articles remained for trend analysis. Subsequently, the PICOS framework and PRISMA guidelines were applied to select only studies that provided complete data for statistical analysis. As a result, 12 studies were identified for inclusion in the meta-analysis.


              Findings are as follows: (1) The result of the statistical test of chi-square shows that X2 = 503.67 implying that the trend of research articles related to effectuation has been continuously increasing since the theory was introduced in 2001. (2) The results of meta-analysis show that the overall effect size = -0.03, p-value = 0.82 indicating that both theories have the potential to significantly contribute to improving firms’ performance. However, effectuation is more suitable in environments characterized by high uncertainty. Thus, future research may employ computer simulations methodology to model environments with varying levels of uncertainty, in order to examine the impact of the two theories on organizational performance.

Article Details

How to Cite
Baimai, C. ., & Dechaprakrom, R. . (2026). Effectuation and Causation Decision-Making: A Meta-analysis. Ph.D. in Social Sciences Journal, 16(1), e278942. retrieved from https://so05.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/phdssj/article/view/278942
Section
Research Article

References

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