I debatten om Sveriges prestationer när det gäller innovation och entreprenörskap blandas lovord med domedagsprofetior. Det pratas bland annat om svenska paradoxer och entreprenöriella klimatförändringar, men utifrån en rad olika källor och definitioner. I denna rapport reder nio forskare, från de tre ledande innovationsforskningscentrumen CESIS, CiiR och CIRCLE, ut begreppen. De levererar en nyanserad bild av Sverige som innovations- och kunskapsnation.• Hur står sig ”det nya Sverige” i en internationell jämförelse?• Existerar den svenska paradoxen?• I vilket land får en investerad FoU-krona störst effekt?• Och är sambandet mellan nyföretagande och innovation alltid positivt?Detta är några av de frågor som får svar. Rapporten har produceratsi samarbete mellan VINNOVA och ESBRI.
In this longitudinal case study, the authors integrate the theory on social movement with the entrepreneurship literature on opportunity discovery, evaluation, and exploitation. They construct a model on collaborative entrepreneurial processes in which multiple partners are involved in identifying, forming, and exploiting an opportunity. Three interdependent subprocesses are identified: (1) the opportunity conceptualization dialogue, (2) resource mobilization and, (3) legitimacy building, which significantly contribute to our understanding of how individuals across different organizations become engaged in collaborative entrepreneurial processes. The model of collaborative entrepreneurial processes complements traditional models of the entrepreneurial process, which place the individual entrepreneur at the center of the process and does not consider group mobilization processes in which the actors aim to be creative and innovative in collaborating with actors from other organizations or firms.
Many incumbent corporations make equity investments in young technological start-ups to enhance their innovation effectiveness, and the great majority syndicate at least some of their investments with other incumbents. While syndication is generally held to benefit incumbent corporations, this study demonstrates that it may also be detrimental to corporate innovation, by elaborating the notion of an information exchange paradox - essentially, that information exchanges within CVC networks must, somehow, be both open and closed at the same time. Corporations must try to appropriate the knowledge championed by their investees and fellow-investors, but also protect their own know-how from leaking to competitors. Unlike prior CVC research, we demonstrate that knowledge sharing in open innovation forums may be counterproductive. Using a unique data set of the investment decisions made by 163 corporations over four years we show that, for some, participating in syndicate networks may involve losses that outweigh their gains. Our analysis establishes two key findings. First, corporations need to consider the trade-off between the number of ventures they support and the position they take in their syndication networks. The best strategies appear to be maximizing isolationist (supporting many ventures but staying away from the network centre) or minimizing centralist (supporting few ventures, but occupying a central network position) - the other two options (maximizing centralist and minimizing isolationist strategies) are far less effective in converting CVC investments into corporate innovation. Second, this picture is particularly applicable to highly concentrated industries dominated by several powerful incumbents: in fragmented industries these strategy differences are far less pronounced, so the choice of CVC syndication strategy will depend on other considerations. This supports a contingency view of syndication, implying that ensuring incumbent corporations really benefit from equity investments in start-ups is a not a trivial task for their managers
Employing a panel setting of 88 counties in the State of Ohio over the five-year period ending in 2006, this study aims to investigate the applicability of the knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship in explaining the relationships between flagship enterprises, entrepreneurial clusters, and business entry rates. The study confirms the overall positive relationship between flagship enterprises and startup rates, and the negative relationship between entrepreneurial clusters and startup rates. It further demonstrates that the effect of clusters is moderated by local unemployment rates so that higher rates of unemployment weaken the negative impact of entrepreneurial clusters on startup rates. Based on the evidence collected, policy makers should increase support for flagship enterprises in their regions, and would-be business owners should consider locating their ventures in proximity to flagship companies.
Contrary to the conventional wisdom, this study demonstrates that technological laggards and not industry front-runners are most likely to experience high rates of technological advancement in strategic alliances. We further suggest that imitation and not innovation is the primary source of such advancement based on the fact that technological progress by laggards is most visible in industries that lack strong appropriability regimes. Finally, we present empirical evidence suggesting that lagging established corporations prefer to imitate from startups and not from fellow-incumbents. These results are derived from a careful analysis of a longitudinal sample of over 150 incumbents with varying degree of technological prowess who engage in partnerships with both startups and fellow-incumbents across a wide representation of industries. Our paper contributes to technological innovation, strategic alliance, entrepreneurship, and imitation literatures and provides non-trivial implications for startups.
Research on corporate venture capital (CVC) has consistently proven its importance for innovation and other strategic goals, yet information on the antecedents of CVC activity is scarce. This study provides theoretical arguments for the role of governance factors including board, CEO, and institutional ownership characteristics. Empirical evidence from an international sample of global CVC investments shows that factors such as having a board with multiple board mandates and institutional ownership are important factors for CVC activity. The conclusion is that the role of governance factors is important, and that subsequent research should not ignore this group of factors.
Entrepreneurs respond to opportunities that come in two basic forms: innovation and arbitrage. This article presents a technique called the minimum performance inefficiency (MPI) estimation method that could be used to estimate arbitrage opportunities. The technique has several advantages over the conceptually similar data envelopment analysis (DEA) and other techniques. The authors validate the technique with a well-known data set and illustrate its use based on secondary data from the publishing industry.
Despite the widespread assumptions of the positive relationship between start-up rates and innovation, the empirical support for this conjecture in the crosscountry context is largely lacking. We draw upon recent advances in the entrepreneurship literature to propose that the relationship between start-up rates and innovation is not uniformly positive, as expected by the early scholars of entrepreneurship, but instead depends on the country's stage of development. The relationship is positive in the developed countries, but negative in countries in early development stages. On balance, there is a weak negative association between start-up rates and innovation. We test our hypotheses on a multi-source dataset that covers 35 countries over the period from 1996 to 2002. The relationships are robust to the choice of three moderators and two dependent variables, as well as a number of post-hoc tests. Our findings indicate that broad-strokes policy efforts that aim at promotion of entrepreneurship as a means to boost country innovativeness may be misguided, and instead suggest a contingency approach
In this study we investigate the relationship between technological arbitrage opportunities and entry rates in twenty-six industries over the course of five years. Arbitrage opportunities are shown to be a positive and significant predictor of business entry rates. Such positive effect is weakened in industries with strong appropriability regime including effective patents, secrecy, and lead time. Adding arbitrage opportunities to the typical determinants of entrepreneurship such as innovative opportunities significantly increases predictive power of the regression models.
Despite the impressive development of substantive theories in entrepreneurship, without the development of measurement theories, further advancement of the field is problematic. In particular, the notion of opportunities, central to entrepreneurship research, requires adequate macro-level operationalization. We demonstrate how to employ data envelopment analysis (DEA) to operationalize not only innovative opportunities, but also technological arbitrage opportunities. We provide an illustrative example based on a sample of 66 countries during the period of 1993-2002. We include estimates of innovative and arbitrage opportunities for possible use by other scholars, discuss the promise and limitations of such estimates, demonstrate how both innovative and arbitrage opportunities correlate with the rates of entrepreneurial activity, and suggest several possible directions for future research.
The emerging literature on outbound open innovation has highlighted innovation processes, which presuppose active outward technology transfer to increase firm profits. To contribute to this discourse, our paper goes beyond the emphasis on core-related technologies and knowledge that currently dominates the technology management literature and develops the novel concept of misfit technology. This concept captures technologies that are not aligned with a focal firm's current knowledge base and/or business model, but which may still be of great value to the firm if alternative commercialization options are considered. By developing a framework that acknowledges (1) Sources of misfit technology, (2) Environmental uncertainty, (3) Organizational slack, (4) Industry appropriability regime and (5) Technological complexity, we theorize on how different modes of commercialization relate to misfit technology commercialization success. The paper is conceptual and is presented with the purpose to spawn further research on this important topic, but simultaneously touches upon the issues of utmost relevance to R&D management practice
This paper analyzes the strategic effects of corporate venture capital investments. Specifically, by studying the deals of 163 corporations over a four-year period, it documents the effects of driving, emerging, enabling, and passive investments on the pool of innovative opportunities available to incumbents and the scale efficiency gains they experience as a result of these investments. The study suggests that by making driving and enabling investments, incumbents position themselves in the industry to take advantage of increased pools of innovative opportunities and improve scale efficiency yields. At the same time, emerging and passive investments are detrimental for both of the strategic goals considered in this paper.
For a sample of all 88 counties in the State of Ohio over a 5-year period, this study documents the effect of flagship enterprises and concentrated industrial clusters on regional innovation. Consistent with the agglomeration arguments and the knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship, both appear to affect regional innovation positively. Additionally, regional educational attainment positively moderates the effect of industrial clusters on innovation. At the same time, flagship enterprises primarily affect regional innovation in regions with low education levels. Results are obtained with the help of conservative econometric techniques and are robust to the choice of alternative dependent variables and estimators. The findings have major policy implications and provide insights into alternative routes to encouraging regional innovation.
We examined 26 industries to estimate the amount of technological arbitrage opportunity available to a typical firm. By presenting a novel way of treating time series data that combine the properties of intertemporal and sequential production frontiers, we analyze 10,650 firm-year observations for the years from 1999 to 2003. We report calculations and our empirical estimates of arbitrage opportunities for possible use by other scholars who would like to utilize arbitrage opportunities in their research and discuss implications
Anokhin S., Wincent J. and Ylinenpää H. Technological expansions, catching-up innovations and technological shifts at the regional level: conceptual considerations and empirical illustration, Regional Studies. Few techniques can capture different types of regional innovations, despite the importance of distinguishing between the innovation types for practitioners and policy-makers. This paper develops and illustrates a methodology based on data envelopment analysis that could be employed to shed light on this critical issue. Different types of regional innovations are analysed based on a longitudinal analysis of all Swedish counties over a five-year period. The approach can be used to analyse and distinguish between expansion-, catching-up- and shift-based types of regional innovation. Regional innovativeness is shown to be related to the regional levels of entrepreneurial activity.
To enhance innovation effectiveness, many incumbent corporations make equity investments in young technological startups. Four out of five corporate investors syndicate at least some of their investments with other incumbents. While syndication practices may be beneficial to incumbent corporations, in this study we elaborate on the notion of information exchange paradox to demonstrate that syndication may be detrimental to corporate innovation. Using a unique data set of investment decisions of 163 corporations over four years, we show that for some corporations the losses of participating in syndicate networks may outweigh the gains. In particular, we demonstrate that syndication network centrality negatively moderates the ability of a corporation to benefit from its investments. We also show that the effect is particularly strong in highly concentrated industries but is virtually non-existent in industries with low concentration. This supports a contingency view of syndication and implies that benefiting from equity investments in startups is a non-trivial task for managers of incumbent corporations.
Research indicates that interactions on social media can reveal remarkably valid predictions about future events. In this study, we show that online legitimacy as a measure of social appreciation based on Twitter content can be used to accurately predict new venture survival. Specifically, we analyze more than 187,000 tweets from 253 new ventures’ Twitter accounts using context-specific machine learning approaches. Our findings suggest that we can correctly discriminate failed ventures from surviving ventures in up to 76% of cases. With this study, we contribute to the ongoing discussion on the importance of building legitimacy online and provide an account of how to use machine learning methodologies in entrepreneurship research.
This article illustrates how opportunities for regional renewal in a peripheral region may be reduced by rigid threat responses undertaken by established firms operating within traditional regional industry. In an inductive case study of new biorefinery industry initiatives in a region where traditional pulp-and-paper and forestry industry was in decline, we used primary and secondary data to outline how a set of new industry players who created innovative ways of using existing regional infrastructures and resources sparked rigid threat responses among established firms from the struggling traditional industry. Established industry firms framed new industry initiatives as threats, and responded by (1) reducing new industry actors' possibilities for new business development, (2) engaging in entrenched resistance, (3) creating collaborative illusions and (4) undermining the fundamentals of the new industry. Consequently, this study contributes to existing literature by proposing the potential of applying the threat-rigidity thesis on a regional level. This is achieved by illustrating that conflicting behaviours between new and established regional industry actors constrain opportunities for regional renewal in a peripheral region. As such, relevant directions for future research and policy implications are outlined
This paper takes an integrative approach towards dialectics and social movement theories in a model of regional industry emergence processes. Based on an inductive qualitative investigation we describe how a new industry emerges in a declining and peripheral region dominated by struggling and traditional local industry. The emanating model of regional industry emergence is based on four main processes; framing processes, movement mobilisation processes, inter-industry relational processes and dialectical processes, which together shape the emerging regional industry. This exemplifies how new regional industry mobilisation efforts provide an ‘anti-thesis' to traditional industry, and how established industry actors respond with contestation to protect their business concepts. Furthermore we illustrate how new industry actors reframe their concepts to complement dominating traditional industry and to overcome tensions and conflicts. Following dialectic interaction between new and traditional industry we noticed signs of acceptance and synthesis between the newly formed and old industry actors; ultimately resulting in a revitalisation of the region's traditional industry. As such, the paper makes a point of accounting for agency and productive conflict when understanding regional industry renewal and emergence.
This paper explores establishment processes of a new industry located in a peripheral region of Sweden that is based upon old traditional industries in decline. Based on a qualitative study, we identify how actors within the new industry interact and intervene with the existing infrastructures and institutions that support the old local industry while trying tobuild new infrastructures. We identify key restricting and supporting mechanisms for the establishment processes, with implications for policy and regional and entrepreneurship research.
Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to conceptually develop the understanding of co-opetition dynamics and to enhance the conceptual clarity of co-opetition by developing a definition based on previous research efforts. Design/methodology/approach - This conceptual paper integrates various approaches to the concept co-opetition into a definition that holds for co-opetitive interactions across multiple levels. Different co-opetitive interactions and the resulting dynamics are discussed by drawing upon competition and cooperation theories. The paper concludes with an agenda for further research on co-opetition dynamics. Findings - The paper outlines how different types of co-opetitive interactions result in archetypical situations where the dynamics of co-opetition are present as well as where the dynamics of co-opetition are missing due to a lack of balance between cooperation and competition. It notes four co-opetitive forces: over-embedding, distancing, confronting, and colluding. These four forces drive development towards situations without dynamics. Originality/value - This paper provides a conceptual understanding of co-opetition dynamics and will reveal that in order to adequately account for co-opetition dynamics, a definition of co-opetition must analytically separate the cooperative and the competitive interaction inherent in co-opetition.
This longitudinal, qualitative case study examines trust-building processes and learning outcomes among entrepreneurs who participated in formal networks designed to develop competence and knowledge. This study is built on rich data collected through observation and video recordings made during network meetings and get-togethers. Additional data was gleaned from personal interviews with participating entrepreneurs. All data sources reveal on how trust develops and how entrepreneurs can use networks to learn and improve their capacity to exploit business opportunities. Studying how trust is built over time among entrepreneurs who demonstrate a low level of trust when they join the network, this study provides insights into micro-processes and important components of building trust. Findings suggest three processes that build commitment, companionship, and competence trust. Moreover, acknowledging the notion of social learning, the findings suggest that when entrepreneurs build trust with one another they can experience cognitive, emotional, and social changes by participating in a network. This may bring potential consequences for their exploiting opportunies. Implications for academics and managers are discussed.
In efforts to promote better realisation of business opportunities, government support of formal policy led learning networks among entrepreneurs has been a popular approach worldwide. This article uses survey data from 109 entrepreneurs who took part in formal learning networks to examine how trust in network partners influences the capacity to act upon business opportunities for entrepreneurs. Further, we examine how this influence is moderated by the entrepreneurs' own self-efficacy. Our results support a positive relationship between developing trust in other networking entrepreneurs and the capacity to act upon business opportunities. Self-efficacy was found to moderate this relationship. For entrepreneurs with low self-efficacy, results support an inverted U-shaped relationship, with the greatest outcomes reached with an intermediate level of trust. For entrepreneurs with high self-efficacy, a positive linear relationship is supported. We discuss implications for further research on trust and realisation of opportunities, and for learning network policy.
The study examines whether factors related to customers' perception of employees' behavior in terms of customer perceived role ambiguity, role overload and customer–employee rapport influence the development of brand equity in the professional service context. 632 customers of one of the Big Four auditing companies participated in the study. The results of structural equation modeling show negative effects of role ambiguity and role overload on brand associations, perceived quality and brand loyalty, which constitute brand equity. The findings indicate a positive effect of customer–employee rapport on the enhancement of B2B brand equity. However, the negative influences of role ambiguity and role overload on customer–employee rapport transfer detrimental indirect effects on brand equity. The study contributes to an understanding of how the real interaction between service providers and customers can influence brand equity in the professional service setting.
The main purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of buyer-seller interdependencies on the formation of brand equity in the B2B context. The study demonstrates that a higher level of dependency, experienced by the multi-services buyers compared to the uniservice buyers, affects overall brand equity developed towards the seller. By considering the hierarchy of effects between the brand equity dimensions, the study shows that the factors capturing the interdependencies have a significant impact on brand loyalty of the multiservice buyers. The study contributes to branding research by evaluating the impact of buyer-seller dependency on B2B brand equity.
Principal TopicPassion has long been recognized as a central component of entrepreneurial motivation and success. Yet surprising little systematic theoretical or empirical work exists concerning the notion of passion and its influence on entrepreneurial activities. Passion has been viewed as both cognitive and emotional, as both a trait and a state, and many scholars do not distinguish between passion as an emotion and the consequences of such passion, such as working longer hours. Thus there is great lack of clarity in defining exactly what passion is, what it feels like, and its role in entrepreneurship.We build a conceptual model of emotion in entrepreneurship, drawing from a strong foundation in the psychological and sociological literatures. In this model, we separate the experience of emotion from the outcomes of such emotional experiences, and distinguish between the distal outcome of entrepreneurial effectiveness, which involves attainment of venture and individual goals, and the drivers of such effectiveness, including problem-solving, persistence, and absorption, which are behaviors that directly result from emotional experiences. Third, we distinguish between situation-specific and more enduring emotional experiences, and suggest that both sets of emotions impact entrepreneurial outcomes. For both episodic and enduring emotions, individuals have certain stable emotional tendencies (core affect), ventures have the ability to engender specific emotions due to their specific nature (affective qualities), and both of these combine to create the subconscious (attributed affect) and conscious (emotional meta-experience) emotional experiences. Since the current emotional state may differ from the more enduring state, this potential discrepancy between them is modeled. If such a discrepancy exists, the tension between the episodic emotional experience and the enduring one must be managed by the entrepreneur, through the process of emotional regulation.Results and ImplicationsBy developing the theoretical foundation for emotional influence in this domain, we enrich theory on entrepreneurial passion and provide concrete guidelines to spur entrepreneurial effectiveness. In particular we suggest how incorporating entrepreneurial emotion in models of entrepreneurship will shed light on how to better prepare nascent and early-stage entrepreneurs for the challenges that lie ahead of them, and how to enhance their own persistence and effectiveness.
Entrepreneurial passion plays an important role in entrepreneurship, but theoretical understanding of what it is and what it does is lacking. We build on fragmented and disparate extant work to conceptualize the nature of entrepreneurial passion associated with salient entrepreneurial role identities. We also theorize the mechanisms of the experience of entrepreneurial passion that provide coherence to goal-directed cognitions and behaviors during the pursuit of entrepreneurial effectiveness.
Presents a study on entrepreneurial passion. Definition of passion; Explanation on the temporal nature of entrepreneurial emotions; Framework for studying emotions in entrepreneurship.
This study examines how subsidiaries can manage dual embeddedness with both local partners and a multinational enterprise. Specifically, we examine the role of absorptive capacity and appropriability mechanisms on subsidiary performance. We analyse how absorptive capacity and appropriability enable subsidiaries to successfully address knowledge challenges related to internal and external networks. We conducted an empirical analysis on a sample of 165 subsidiaries. Our results suggest that absorptive capacity has a direct, positive effect on subsidiary performance, which is greater in emerging countries. The study also found an indirect effect of absorptive capacity on subsidiary performance, which is mediated through appropriability mechanisms. These findings extend the literature on international networks, dual embeddedness and absorptive capacity.
Digitalization offers unprecedented opportunities for entrepreneurial small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). However, many entrepreneurial SMEs lack resources and capabilities or suffer from inertia, which hampers these opportunities. This study investigates how entrepreneurial SMEs can enhance performance through digital platforms. Specifically, the study examines the effect of digital platform capability and network capability on entrepreneurial SMEs’ financial performance. The study also examines how exploitation and exploration orientations moderate this relationship. Based on analysis of 230 entrepreneurial SMEs, the results indicate that digital platform capability has a positive indirect effect on entrepreneurial SMEs’ performance via network capability. The study also shows that exploitation and exploration orientations negatively and positively moderate this effect, respectively. The results suggest that entrepreneurial SMEs can enhance their performance through digital platform capability by aligning this capability with their orientation. These findings thereby enrich the literature on entrepreneurial SMEs and capabilities.
The purpose of this research paper is to investigate the growth of women’s businesses from a qualitative perspective. The paper identifies strategic building blocks for defining a set of different growth platforms. Moreover, we investigate growth ambitions for women inside each identified "type" of growth platform and identify critical motivation variables that can influence the decision to move from growing one business platform to growing another platform.Design/methodology/approach - The results are based on 191 women entrepreneurs. Data was analyzed by coding narrative statements from the survey into overarching themes for business platforms, descriptive frequency analysis and logistic regression analysis techniques.Findings - We discerned five different growth platforms and noticed intrinsic or extrinsic growth ambitions for platform growth. The extrinsic platforms are the most common, but all platforms can be characterized by equally high growth aspirations. Each of the identified platforms is associated with distinct and unique blocks that the women entrepreneurs try to put together and resolve in order to grow their companies. Women entrepreneurs move between the different platforms when the building blocks of previous platforms have been established and secured. Variables such as profits and ownership may explain such transfers of growth ambitionsResearch limitations/implications - While acknowledging the qualitative growth of business platforms, we take an approach that goes against the traditional view of quantitative growth. Originality/value - This study is a response to the lack of research on qualitative growth and women’s entrepreneurship and suggests that the manifested qualitative growth can be in order to secure blocks on different business platforms.
This study is a response to the lack of research on qualitative growth and women’s entrepreneurship. Using a sample of 191 women entrepreneurs, this study suggests that qualitative growth is manifested in a striving to grow, to secure building blocks on different business platforms, may unfold to accomplish growth in different forms: survival, stability, work creation, appreciation and personal development. Although the extrinsic platforms of survival and stability are the most common growth platforms among women entrepreneurs, all forms can be characterized by equally high growth aspirations. Each of the platforms is associated with distinct and unique building blocks that women entrepreneurs try to put together and solve in order to grow their companies. Women entrepreneurs also move between the different platforms, from the growth of extrinsic platforms to intrinsic platforms, when the building blocks of those platforms have been established and secured. Variables such as profits and ownership may explain such a transfer of growth ambitions.
PurposeThis paper identifies whether nascent women entrepreneurs perceive more risks than men and determines how higher risk perceptions might limit start-up decisions by mediating the potential influence of passion and self-efficacy on the start-up decision.Design/methodology/approachThis study surveyed 103 participants in Sweden—both women and men—who in the period 2008 through 2011 intended to start a business. We conducted ANOVA tests and binominal logistic regression models to test our hypothesized framework. FindingsWe found that nascent women entrepreneurs perceive more risk than nascent male entrepreneurs; that risks perceptions influence start-up decisions; and that risk preferences partial out the otherwise identified influence of passion on start-up decisions.Practical implicationsWe reveal a consequence of gender socialization and how it impacts the start-up decisions of nascent women entrepreneurs. Support systems should consider developing activities that change the public’s perception of who is an entrepreneur and seek ways to balance risk perceptions between men and women.Originality/valueWe argue here that risk perceptions play a prominent role in start-up decisions. Specifically, we consider that nascent women entrepreneurs perceive more risks than do men, and that their view of risk partials out any potential influence of their perceived passion and self-efficacy on their start-up decision.
This research note demonstrates that self-efficacy is important for understanding why an attractive idea may lead an entrepreneur to develop passion. Drawing upon a survey of 103 respondents, we find that self-efficacy mediates the influence of pull entrepreneurship on founder passion suggesting that being pulled toward opportunities to start a business is not directly required for entrepreneurial passion to develop. Instead, pull entrepreneurship increases self-efficacy and assists the individual to develop the skills typical of an entrepreneur. This instills individual self-efficacy beliefs, which in turn are prerequisites for passion to grow. As such, this research uncovers a skill-based explanation of how founder passion develops.
Abstract
Aboriginal Inuit of the Arctic Canada and indigenous Sámi of Fennoscandia hold onto cultural values such as sourcing traditional food from their land; these peoples still live – at least partially – in a subsistence economy. Both were traditionally nomadic, and nowadays, Inuit travel to hunt, while Sámi reindeer herders still follow their herds during periods required. Given their lifestyle, nomadic patters, work values, ethics, natural adaptation, and the central tenet of their food production and eating habits, both of these societies constitute an interesting case about self-employment, subsistence, food production and organization – including food-sharing by which income is voluntarily distributed according to custom, to the needy. However, much remains to be known about how they adapt to problems and engage in these matters. Whereas quantitative methods best answer why questions, we opt for a qualitative approach that is better suited to how questions. In a qualitative study, we observe the preservation of and respect for traditional knowledge and competencies. Community entrepreneurs organize their society with a high level of respect, networking, and reducing economic risk. We also identify tension between mainstream and traditional culture in the framing process, and how different types of frames were used to develop consensus around their core cultural food. We show and identify a process model of how the Inuit and Sámi communities engaged in frames and framing to develop consensus through self-respect of traditional knowledge, but to adjust and influence challenges to their historical culture.
We use a self regulation perspective to argue that entrepreneurial effectiveness is driven by the coping strategies entrepreneurs use to meet expectations of stakeholders involved in the opportunity exploitation processes. As stakeholders advance their expectations and thus impact the roles of entrepreneurs in the process, role related conflicts, ambiguities and overloads, easily emerge. To resolve such conflicts entrepreneurs engage in coping strategies. We posit that four coping strategies are relevant for entrepreneurial effectiveness: structural role redefinition, personal role redefinition, reactive role behavior, and passive role behavior.
Purpose: The aims of this paper are to: critically review and identify gaps in current literature on entrepreneurial self-efficacy, provide a definition of entrepreneurial self-efficacy that addresses some of those gaps, and explore the role of entrepreneurial self-efficacy during the phases of a business start-up process. The research seeks to define entrepreneurial self-efficacy using three sources of dimensionality. The first includes the particular aspect of entrepreneurship to which self-efficacy is applied, whether to business start-up or business growth activities. The second sources of dimensionality refers to the content of self-efficacy beliefs (task or outcome goal beliefs), and the third source to the valence of entrepreneurial self-efficacy beliefs (positive or negative control beliefs). Design/methodology/approach: The authors build from the origins and mechanisms of the self-efficacy construct in social cognitive theory and a synthesis of that work with prior use of self-efficacy in entrepreneurship to propose a definition of entrepreneurial self-efficacy that is context specific and empirically testable. Findings: Entrepreneurial self-efficacy is best seen as a multidimensional construct made up of goal and control beliefs, and propositions for how these two different dimensions will play a role during phases in the process of starting-up a new business are developed. Research limitations/implications: A well-defined entrepreneurial self-efficacy construct has significant pedagogical payoffs given that entrepreneurship education should also focus on social-cognitive, psycho-cognitive and ethical perspectives of entrepreneurship. Originality/value: The proposed multidimensional nature of self-efficacy is original and unique in its contribution, and provides a conceptual foundation to understand how capabilities along different dimensions of entrepreneurial self-efficacy are created and nurtured. This knowledge is useful for potential entrepreneurs as well as those who support them in the process.
This paper analyzes effectiveness of coping strategies that entrepreneurs use to daily manage work related stress. Coping is the process of expending efforts to solve personal and interpersonal problems and reducing stress induced by unpleasant and stressful situations. Two broad strategies of coping are identified; problem-based coping refers to a cognitively-based response behavior that includes efforts to alleviate stressful circumstances while emotion-based coping involves behavioral responses to regulate the affective consequences of stressful events. The purpose of this research is to analyze relationships among the coping strategies used by entrepreneurs and a set of antecedents influencing the selection of coping strategies. The methodology used is based on structural equation modeling and empirical data of 469 entrepreneurs from two European countries. Our results show that problembased coping facilitates well-being and venture performance. In addition, our findings also support interaction effects of founder centrality and contextual conditions of venturing on the extent entrepreneurs engage in coping. We believe that our insights can help in training entrepreneurs in the development of effective coping strategies that are context dependent. In specific, our results suggest entrepreneurs to engage in problem-focused strategies when they want to effectively address the economic aspects of their lives whereas when they engage in emotionbased strategies they seem to increase the self-knowledge they need to start subsequent ventures and facilitate learning from failure. Future studies on coping strategies could study the interplay of coping strategies used to resolve challenging social situations that various stakeholders of practicing entrepreneurs impose.
To address the increasing relational challenges in international R&D collaboration, the present study develops a framework for understanding retrospective relational sensemaking in R&D offshore relationships. Using a comparative case study methodology, this study analyzes relational data from 56 interviews regarding four R&D offshore relationships between two large Swedish multinational companies and four R&D offshore partners. This study contributes to existing sensemaking theory by constructing a framework for retrospective relational sensemaking, including triggers and the phases of enactment, selection, and retention, to improve relational learning in R&D offshore relationships.
The literature on the front end in the New Product Development (NPD) literature is fragmented with respect to the identification and analysis of the factors that are critical to successful product development. The article has a two-fold purpose. First, it describes, analyses, and synthesizes those factors through a literature review of the research on the front end in NPD. Second, it conceptualizes a framework that features two types of success factors: foundational success factors (common to all the firm’s projects) and project-specific success factors (appropriate for the firm’s individual projects). The article makes recommendations for the management of this important phase of product development, discusses limitations of relevant previous research, and offers suggestions for future research. The article makes a theoretical contribution with its analysis and synthesis of the reasons for success in front-end activities and a practical contribution with its conceptual framework that can be used as an analytical tool by firms and their product managers.