Action and reflection: rewiring the concept of entrepreneurial experimentation in the entrepreneurship process

Purpose Entrepreneurial experimentation, or acting rapidly through agile iterations, is commonly pictured as a key factor in successful entrepreneurship. Yet some evidence suggests that entrepreneurs who carefully consider and test their theories (or assumptions) achieve better performance. This article reconciles these contrasting views, rewiring the concept of experimentation across the new venture creation process and clarifying what this rewiring entails in practice. Design/methodology/approach We conduct an integrative review of 78 publications from 3 decades of entrepreneurship research. The synthesis weaves together otherwise diverging research streams and theorizes on the functions of entrepreneurial experimentation. Findings The findings indicate that the apparent contradiction between experimentation as rapid action and experimentation as hypothesized reflection stems from the researchers' distinct disciplinary perspectives. Reframing these two as functions, experimentation as discovery and experimentation as making, reveals how both approaches can have critical effects across the new venture creation process. Originality/value The article addresses the ongoing debate on entrepreneurial experimentation by offering a unifying functional perspective that explains prior contradictory findings, highlighting how discovery and making jointly shape entrepreneurial outcomes.