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Published Articles

  • Camuffo, A., Gambardella, A., Messinese, D., Novelli, E., Paolucci, E., & Spina, C. (2024). A scientific approach to entrepreneurial decision‐making: Large‐scale replication and extension. Strategic Management Journal. The paper shows that the scientific approach enhances entrepreneurs' efficiency in searching for viable ideas and raises their methodic doubt because, like scientists, they realize that there may be alternative scenarios from the ones that they theorize.

  • Agrawal, A., Camuffo, A., Gans, S., Scott, E., Stern, S. (2024). Bayesian Entrepreneurship. MIT Press.This paper applies Bayesian learning to entrepreneurial decision-making and interprets the scientific approach to decision-making as a process of belief formation, testing and updating that uses theories and experiments. 

  • Jannace, D., & Camuffo, A. (2023). Curbing the Addition Bias: Scientific Approaches and Propensity to Subtract in Entrepreneurial Ideas. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2023, No. 1, p. 15426). Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510: Academy of Management. Using data from the RCT conducted in Italy, the paper shows that adopting “scientific” approaches to entrepreneurial decision-making reduces entrepreneurs’ addition bias, increasing the likelihood of removing redundant elements from business ideas.

  • Bacco, F., Coali, A., & Wormald, A. (2023). Entrepreneurship Training and Founders’ Perceptions of Ability: A RCT with Entrepreneurs in Tanzania. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2023, No. 1, p. 14625). Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510: Academy of Management. The paper shows that teaching entrepreneurs to make decisions following a scientific approach increases their perceived ability to deal with uncertainty stemming from the development of a viable business model. This also has positive implications for business outcomes.


Working Papers

  • Agarwal R., Bacco F., Camuffo A., Coali A., Gambardella A., Msangi H., Sonka S. T., Temu A., Waized B., Wormald A. (2023). Does a Theory-of-Value Add Value? Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial with Tanzanian Entrepreneurs. Available at SSRN. Revise and Resubmit at Organization Science. The paper shows that entrepreneurs that use theories and not only experiments perform better because of the types of changes they make to their business models.

  • Camuffo, A., Gambardella, A., & Pignataro, A. (2023). Theory-Driven Strategic Management Decisions, CEPR Discussion paper n. 17664-3. Revise and resubmit at Strategy Science. The paper models the “theory” component of the scientific approach. Entrepreneurial projects tackle novel market or technological problems and imply decisions under uncertainty for which past data are not available. In such non-ergodic decision contexts, entrepreneurs formulate their ideas through causal theories of value, represented as Bayesian networks.

  • Chondrakis, G., Frosi, C., Gagliardi, L., & Mariani, M. (2024). The effect of the scientific approach and entrepreneurial domains on entrepreneurial ideas. Paper accepted for presentation at the 2024 Strategic Management Society Annual Conference. Leveraging data from the RCT conducted in Spain, the paper examines the effects of raising domain awareness in entrepreneurs who adopt a scientific approach. It shows that domain awareness, combined with theories, widens the scope of ideas but negatively impacts short-term venture growth, suggesting that there is a trade-off between the benefits and costs of exploring beyond one’s familiar zone.

  • Raj, D., Berchicci, L., Rosendahl, L., Camuffo, A. (2024). A Scientific Approach to Entrepreneurial Team Formation: A Field Experiment. Paper accepted for presentation at the 2024 Strategic Management Society Annual Conference. Using data from the RCT conducted in Colombia, the paper shows that entrepreneurs who use the scientific approach are more likely to change their founding teams and make more team changes in the earlier stages of new ventures.