Causation and effectuation are two entrepreneurial decision-making logics. Whether entrepreneurs can coordinate causation and effectuation based on specific events is of great significance. However, the relationship between causation and effectuation remains underdeveloped. To address this lacuna, this paper systematically reviews and discriminates causation and effectuation, draws from the dualism and ambidexterity research in philosophy and management, and then defines the ambidexterity of causation and effectuation. At the same time, this paper constructs its conceptual framework based on the event system theory, and explains the mechanism between entrepreneurial event characteristics and entrepreneurial decision-making logics.

The conclusions are that: First, by systematically reviewing and discriminating causation and effectuation, and based on the dual research perspective of philosophy and management, this paper defines the ambidexterity of causation and effectuation as “entrepreneurs will not trap in the path dependence of the utility of either a single logic, but can adjust coordinately and flexibly between causation and effectuation without cognitive conflict according to the specific entrepreneurial context”, and also supposes that there are three forms of the ambidexterity of causation and effectuation: structural form, contextual form, and contingent form. Second, this paper applies the event system theory to build a conceptual framework, which explains that: (1) Critical events promote causation. (2) Disruptive events cause effectuation. (3) Novel events can turn into new critical events or new disruptive events, and thus stimulate either causation or effectuation. (4) The temporal and spatial characteristics of entrepreneurial events positively moderate effectuation adoption. (5) Entrepreneurs can coordinate causation and effectuation through either adaptive learning or learning from failure on event results.

The contributions are that: First, this paper deepens the understanding of the relationship between causation and effectuation, and defines the ambidexterity of causation and effectuation, which provides a unified theoretical basis and a theoretical proposition for future research. Second, this paper expands the event system theory to the entrepreneurial decision-making field, enriches the antecedent research of causation and effectuation, and explains the mechanism between entrepreneurial event characteristics and entrepreneurial decision-making logics, which provides a new perspective for follow-up research. Third, this paper provides theoretical evidence that entrepreneurs should actively respond to events and learn from the results to improve their entrepreneurial cognition and ability.

Future research directions are that: Develop the research design and measurement of the ambidexterity of causation and effectuation; deepen the antecedent research of the ambidexterity of causation and effectuation based on the event system theory; extend our conceptual framework to an organizational level; extend the moderating and mediating effects of our conceptual framework on an individual level.