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Acting Entrepreneurially and Strategically in Heavily Regulated Sectors
Uppsala universitet, Företagsekonomiska institutionen.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-7788-9528
2022 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

This thesis investigates how firms act entrepreneurially and strategically in heavily regulated sectors. Over four studies, the thesis develops a deeper and more empirically grounded understanding of how entrepreneurial and strategic actions are developed and combined. It is examined how firms’ internal organizational resources can prepare the ground for entrepreneurial and strategic actions as these resources can facilitate such activities (Ireland et al., 2009). The literature identifies several internal organizational resources that influence the success of both activities. This thesis particularly examines three of these resources: management support, work discretion, and rewards/reinforcements. In addition, it is explored how firms can use their external embeddedness to act entrepreneurially and strategically through decision-making and networking dynamics. Finally, it is examined how the combination of entrepreneurial and strategic actions is manifested. A mixture of qualitative and quantitative methodologies is used to provide a more comprehensive analysis of the investigated issues. The results show that firms use their internal organizational resources to develop and conduct both types of activities. These internal organizational resources appear to be important organizational antecedents that drive both types of activities. The findings also illustrate how firms use their external embeddedness to identify opportunities, mobilize beneficial resources, secure a competitive advantage, overcome the difficulties inherent to heavily regulated sectors, and create a new market. This was possible through combinations of entrepreneurial and strategic activities conducted through effectual and causal decision-making and network dynamics. Finally, the results show that the combination of entrepreneurial and strategic actions was manifested in different ways. In the examined financial services firms, the combination of both activities was manifested through the design of adapted internal organizational resources that facilitated the development and combination of both types of activities.  The combination was challenged by two opposite organizational resources: top-down managerial control (centralized decision-making) and bottom-up freedom (decentralized decision-making). In the case of the new venture creation process, the combination of both activities varied depending on changes in the external environment, and it was sometimes facilitated but at other times challenged by those changes. Overall, the thesis offers several theoretical, managerial, and methodological contributions to a range of scholarly conversations, including the literature on strategic entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial decision-making, organizational preparedness for entrepreneurship, business networks, and the new venture process.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis , 2022. , p. 88
Keywords [en]
advantage-seeking, decision-making, entrepreneurial action, internal organizational factors, networks, new ventures, opportunity-seeking, strategic action, strategic entrepreneurship
National Category
Business Administration
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:du-50250ISBN: 978-91-506-2931-6 (print)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:du-50250DiVA, id: diva2:1940185
Public defence
2022-05-05, Hörsal 2, Kyrkogårdsgatan 10, Uppsala, 10:15 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
Available from: 2025-02-25 Created: 2025-02-25 Last updated: 2025-02-25Bibliographically approved
List of papers
1. Developments in Strategic Entrepreneurship
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Developments in Strategic Entrepreneurship
2020 (English)In: Foundations and Trends® in Entrepreneurship, ISSN 1551-3114, Vol. 16, no 6, p. 444-513Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Now almost twenty years ago, strategic entrepreneurship emerged as a new and high-potential field of research at the crossroads of the entrepreneurship and strategic management literatures. In this review, we track the development of this new field of research to see whether it has lived up to the original promises. Based on the review of 131 articles that have appeared over the period 2001–2019, we conclude that strategic entrepreneurship research is yet to develop the coherence and momentum that will allow it to take off more emphatically. In the discussion, we outline a set of interrelated issues concerned with conceptual ambiguity, model boundaries, and consistency in the application of conceptual foundations which we believe have had an attenuating effect on past developments of the field. We conclude our review by identifying a number of avenues for future research, alongside a pressing need for producing firmer practical guidelines for how to effectively integrate the entrepreneurial and strategic aspects of management.

National Category
Business Administration
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:du-50225 (URN)10.1561/0300000094 (DOI)
Available from: 2025-02-21 Created: 2025-02-21 Last updated: 2025-02-25Bibliographically approved
2. Strategic corporate entrepreneurship practices in financial services firms: the role of organizational factors
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Strategic corporate entrepreneurship practices in financial services firms: the role of organizational factors
2022 (English)In: SN Business & Economics, E-ISSN 2662-9399, Vol. 2, no 9, article id 130Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

The study explores a hitherto neglected area of strategic corporate entrepreneurship in services firms, the association of organizational factors with different strategic corporate entrepreneurship practices. It represents a first step toward understanding how internal organizational factors may spur different forms of strategic corporate entrepreneurship practices within services firms, especially those operating in the financial sector. Data for the study were collected through a survey study and the sample consisted of employees at a major insurance company in Sweden. The sample includes five offices placed in the north-eastern in Sweden and four offices ubicated in Stockholm. Using structural equation modelling, it was found that whereas organizational factors such as management support and reward/reinforcement have a positive effect on both incremental and discontinuous strategic corporate entrepreneurship practices, the organizational factor work discretion presents a differentiated effect. The study provides an important step toward understanding the internal factors that spur employees toward strategic corporate entrepreneurship practices in financial services firms. Moreover, the study develops a potential measure of incremental and discontinuous strategic corporate entrepreneurship practices. In terms of practical implications, the findings offer managers a solid foundation on which to base their decisions to create and improve an internal organizational environment that facilitates strategic corporate entrepreneurship practices.

National Category
Business Administration
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:du-50229 (URN)10.1007/s43546-022-00306-2 (DOI)
Funder
Uppsala UniversityMid Sweden UniversityUppsala University
Available from: 2025-02-21 Created: 2025-02-21 Last updated: 2025-02-25Bibliographically approved
3. Becoming a public sector insider: A case study of Swedish digital healthcare start-ups' entrepreneurial business formation processes
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Becoming a public sector insider: A case study of Swedish digital healthcare start-ups' entrepreneurial business formation processes
2022 (English)In: Industrial Marketing Management, ISSN 0019-8501, E-ISSN 1873-2062, Vol. 105, p. 340-350Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

The aim of the study is to better understand start-ups' entrepreneurial business formation processes from a contextual perspective. We examine a digitalization process in the healthcare sector in Sweden, and investigate the start-up processes taking place in order to reach a better understanding of what it takes for new actors to obtain an insider position in this particular type of highly regulated networks. The study offers important insights into the dynamics of constituent elements in the process, including the sequences of events through which start-up processes evolve, and insights into new ventures' initial entry into a business network. It is concluded that the studied processes were interactive, forcing the start-ups to be both innovative and able to conform. It was also found that legitimacy constitute an important resource in this type of politically sensitive context.

Keywords
Business networks, Process, Insider, Relationships, Resources, Knowledge, Legitimacy, Public sector, Start-up, Healthcare
National Category
Business Administration
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:du-50230 (URN)10.1016/j.indmarman.2022.06.013 (DOI)
Available from: 2025-02-21 Created: 2025-02-21 Last updated: 2025-02-25Bibliographically approved

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