Predictive vs. non-predictive entrepreneurial strategies: What’s the difference, anyway?

Entrepreneurship research has developed and upheld the distinction between two fundamental notions of how entrepreneurial action might proceed, one being the predictive approach (causation) and the other being non-predictive or adaptive (effectuation). However, while a definite distinction between prediction and adaption may be justifiable for analytical purposes, it is artificial and, as such, of limited practical value. Neither is the predictive approach non-adaptive and nor is the adaptive approach non-predictive. Entrepreneurship necessarily involves both prediction and adaption, which ought therefore not to be treated as mutually exclusive categories that might at best overlap or occur simultaneously. This paper seeks to pave the way to a judgment-based unified notion of predictive-adaptive entrepreneurial action arguing that both prediction and adaption inevitably co-occur.