By Torben Haugaard Jensen, Communications Officer, AAU Business School

Professor Saras Sarasvathy from Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia has received several awards for her research on the cognitive basis for high-performance entrepreneurship and what she has labeled effectuation: the principles followed by expert entrepreneurs.Recently, Sarasvathy received the 2022 Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research.

Year-long collaboration with AAU

Professor Sarasvathy has collaborated with Aalborg University Business School (AAUBS) since 2010, with visits focused on knowledge sharing through research collaboration, guest lecturing, DRUID Academy PhD training, MBA workshops, and entrepreneurship motivational speeches for AAU stakeholders from private and public organisations in North Jutland.

Scholars from AAUBS have implemented ideas from Sarasvathy’s contributions to the entrepreneurship field in research, teaching, and entrepreneurial practice. Kristian Nielsen, Associate Professor at AAUBS, has collaborated with Sarasvathy on novel research projects, which included research stays at Sarasvathy’s research group at the Darden School of Business for extended periods. Kristian Nielsen met Professor Sarasvathy at a workshop on Effectuation in Denmark in 2008.

- I was intrigued by her findings through studying expert entrepreneurs in the US and her ability to link these findings to theories within the cross-field of economics and psychology. We discussed the idea of using the very detailed Danish register data available to researchers at Statistics Denmark to explore entrepreneurial behavior and outcomes. When I received an award with funding for a longer research stay abroad as visiting scholar, the idea became reality, Kristian Nielsen explains.

In 2016 Sarasvathy and Nielsen published the first joint work in Academy of Management Discoveries. The article explores the characteristics of (potential) serial entrepreneurs who learn the right and wrong lessons from previous failure or success with their first venture through the combination of theories from economics, psychology and sociology and utilization of Danish register data. Since they have worked together on different projects, including one just initiated on hybrid entrepreneurship.

Worldwide influence on entrepreneurship teaching

Profesor Sarasvathy teaches entrepreneurship and effectuation principles in doctoral programmes in Europa, Asia, Latin America, and Africa. In addition, her ideas are implemented in entrepreneurship teaching at universities worldwide, including in the different departments at Aalborg University.

Sarasvathy has developed several teaching cases and material on effectuation, including the co-authored textbook Effectual Entrepreneurship, which received the Gold Medal in the 2012 Axiom Business Book Awards and was named one of the Top 18 Entrepreneurship Professors by Fortune Small Business magazine. Teaching material on effectuation is now being developed by scholars worldwide.

Guest Lecture by Professor Sarasvathy

Professor Saras Sarasvathy will give a guest lecture at Aalborg University on April 20. Read more about Sarasvathy’s guest lecture.