Expertise,university infrastructure and approaches to new venture creation: assessing students who start businesses

Abstract

Within the broader literature on contextual determinants of effectual and causal cognitive logics, the paper explores the drivers of causal and effectual reasoning in student-founders of new ventures, particularly focusing on the role of university entrepreneurship-related offerings and student prior business experience. Using the Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students’ Survey (GUESSS), the study involves a sample of 2179 student entrepreneurs from 26 countries. Our findings indicate that university entrepreneurship-related offerings such as curricular programming, co-curricular activities, and financial support play a differentiating role in the proclivity towards causal or effectual approaches across the groups of experienced and inexperienced student entrepreneurs. We also provide evidence that effectuation and causation are not mutually exclusive constructs: they are intertwined and can unfold simultaneously.     

Identity in entrepreneurship effectuation theory: a supplementary framework

The article proposes a new framework on identity construction in entrepreneurship that in valuable ways supplements the logic of identity presented in Sarasvathy??s (2001, 2008) popular effectuation theory. Effectuation theory assumes that identity is a given and relative stable precondition of the entrepreneurial process that support the entrepreneur in ordering preferences in the process of effectuating resources, stakeholder commitment, etc.. The article shows that identity construction is an active and integral part of the effectuation process, and it importantly influences the manner in which the entrepreneur acts and makes decisions in the process. The article seeks to challenge and advance effectuation theory??s view on identity based on a narrative study of ten novice student entrepreneurs. The study gives insight into the identity processes involved in becoming a student entrepreneur, and it may serve as a guide to how entrepreneurship educators and counselors can place more emphasis on identity related struggles involved in the entrepreneurial effectuation process.     

Text-analytic measurement of effectuation and causation orientations among small and global business managers

We demonstrate how one can measure overall quality in texts gathered from interviews by means of PERTEX text analytic method. We compare text analytic measures and content for locally active Scandinavian small business managers and globally operating Indian IT managers when recapitulating the reasons behind company growth. Using Ward’s clustering method (J Am Stat Assoc 58:236–244, 1963) on a binary matrix for connections between textual components, we suggest using the ESS value from clustering to calculate AFFI as an overall measure of quality. By further splitting the AFFI into three sub-components we are also able to display the degree of fragmentation, focus and integration in the text. We show how AFFI measures differ between managers with a causation or effectuation orientation irrespective of their role as small business manager or as an established global manager. Hence, we posit that effectuation and causation orientations may be generic characteristic of managers in general.     

The culturally contingent meaning of entrepreneurship: mixed embeddedness and co-ethnic ties

This study employs phenomenography to investigate the role of embeddedness in business venturing of migrant and ethnic entrepreneurs. By focusing on two culturally distinct groups, operating in the same micro-economic context, we show the ways in which embeddedness impacts the perceptions and subsequent enactment of business venturing. Our findings demonstrate that, despite physical proximity and similar socio-economic context, the investigated communities predominantly employ their co-ethnic norms, assumptions and frames of reference to makes sense of and act upon entrepreneurial opportunities. These findings expand the mixed embeddedness literature by exploring how co-ethnic sensemaking frames persist within culturally distinct communities, despite years of co-existence within the same socio-economic context. Moreover, our study reveals how co-ethnic structures can successfully substitute institutional arrangements traditionally provided by the host-country environment. By reflecting upon the practice of entrepreneuring and entrepreneurial sensemaking, our findings point towards the importance of language and interpretative methods for theory development.     

Individual-level antecedents of the entrepreneurial approach: the role of different types of passion in the Italian craft brewing industry

Using an inductive, qualitative approach involving fifty-five entrepreneurs in the Italian craft brew industry we explore the relationship between alternative entrepreneurial logics of action based on effectuation and causation principles and two types of passion – respectively, passion for the product and passion for growth. Our findings suggest entrepreneurs led by a passion for product prioritize decisions made according to the principles of effectuation, while those led by a passion for growth rely predominantly on causal logic. Moreover, such relations do impact the direction pursued by their ventures favouring, in turn, homogenous and heterogeneous strategies. Important practical and theoretical implications to both effectuation theory and passion are drawn from our findings, and possible avenues for future research are depicted.

     

Resourceful Sensemaking in an Administrative Group

ABSTRACT In this study, we present the concept of resourceful sensemaking as an extension of Weick's sensemaking theory. Resourceful sensemaking extends Weick's theory by carefully examining the influence of the lifeworld on organizational sensemaking practices. Lifeworld factors that affect organizational sensemaking are brought out in a dialectical method wherein a working definition of the resourceful sensemaking concept is compared with the sensemaking practices of an administrative group. We then show how this dialectical method can help develop a more robust formulation of the resourceful sensemaking concept. The paper ends by discussing the strengths and shortcomings of the concept and suggesting directions for future organizational sensemaking research.     

Improvised internationalization in new ventures: The role of prior knowledge and networks

How do entrepreneurs identify foreign market opportunities and how do they identify foreign market(s) and customers? We draw on the concepts of effectuation, improvisation, prior knowledge and networks to study the early internationalization of new ventures operating in the Irish Shellfish sector. We argue that the internationalization process was strongly influenced by two ‘resources to hand’: the entrepreneurs’ idiosyncratic prior knowledge and their prior social and business ties. We observe an effectuation logic and extensive improvisation in the internationalization process of these new ventures.     

Strategic human resource management and inertia in the corporate entrepreneurship of a multinational enterprise

Abstract

Corporate entrepreneurship (CE) supports sustained competitive advantage through the continuous exploration and exploitation of new sources of knowledge. With an emphasis on combining knowledge in new configurations, strategic human resource management (HRM) activities are core to these entrepreneurial endeavours. We explore how strategic HRM activities may facilitate and impede CE through a rich, qualitative case study of three local entities within a business unit of a large multinational enterprise facing business stagnation and low levels of corporate entrepreneurship. Responding to a call for more empirical research that probes the subtle and complex interactions between HRM activities and other organisational factors affecting CE, we identify a configuration of inter-dependent factors that mutually reinforce each other and sustain inertia in corporate entrepreneurship. We also make two novel contributions to theory by (1) elaborating the links between organisational process-orientation, strategic HRM and CE; and (2) refining to our current understanding of human competencies for CE.     

Unconscious Processes of Organizing: Intergroup Conflict in Mental Health Care

A critical but overlooked issue in Weick’s seminal work, The Social Psychology of Organizing (1969/1979), concerns ‘the heat’ of organizing processes, namely, the underground emotional processes underpinning the organizing of conflictual work relationships. We present a qualitative case study of psychiatric agencies mandated by public policy to collaborate but instead engaged in persistent conflict despite its deleterious effects on their working relationship and on the wellbeing of the clients they intended to serve. To explain these conflictual features of organizing, we integrate Weick’s organizing theory with systems psychodynamics to deepen the understanding of emotions in organizing, specifically the motivational forces underpinning sensemaking and actions between interacting psychiatric agencies. This integration of theories reveals a critical feature of the relationship between the conscious and unconscious organizing processes: When a threat is involved, sensemaking and action are overtaken by social defences, resulting in dysfunctional organizing of the primary task. Drawing on these findings, we enrich Weick’s seminal work by developing a model that portrays organizing as the ritualized interaction of emotions, sensemaking and behavioural responses.     

Of Organizing and Sensemaking: From Action to Meaning and Back Again in a Half-Century of Weick’s Theorizing

The themes of organizing and sensemaking have reverberated throughout Weick’s remarkable career and constitute one of the hallmarks of his contribution. We review his major works and show how Weick differentially emphasizes organizing and sensemaking over time and, eventually, arrives at a fuller integration of meaning and action. Initially, Weick (1969; 1979) models their relationship as linear, focusing on how organizing functioned as a context for sensemaking, an approach we label Sensemaking in Organizing. Later, however, Weick (1995a; 2005) construes their relationship in more dynamic, interactive, and reciprocal cycles, modelling sensemaking as the process whereby organizing is achieved, an approach we label Sensemaking as Organizing. We explore the evolution and implications of these approaches and discuss their impact on management scholarship. Finally, we draw out potential future research directions at the interface of organizing and sensemaking.     

Sustainable development and profit? A sensemaking perspective on hybrid organisations and their founders

This article explores the sensemaking process of the individual entrepreneurs behind hybrid organisations that seek to both initiate environmental/social change and also generate profit. The work sheds light on how founders of six such organisations set-up initially in between 1978 and 1991 make sense of themselves and their firm and how this impacts on their business strategies. We examine the life-stories of these individuals to illuminate their perspectives on their experiences, motives and values. We suggest that both ambition and altruism motivate individuals to become involved in these firms, echoing the paradox of firms seeking both social change and value creation. The work enhances our understanding of both sensemaking theory and success factors for hybrid organisations and strategizing more broadly.     

Care of the other: knowledge-creation through care in professional teams

This paper presents a study in a major pharmaceutical company of how team-based, knowledge-intensive work is positively affected by what we refer to as care. Organization theory directs much effort toward understanding how values, norms and cultures are shared, how they construct meaning and make sense within an organization. In addition, the ability to share experiences and know-how is a crucial activity in organizations. This paper presents a framework for knowledge-creation in a relational, sensemaking perspective where the notion of care, the ability to establish interpersonal, sensemaking mechanisms, is the underlying key factor behind knowledge-creation in team-based organizations.     

Managing Scottish higher and further education

Abstract

This article outlines the traditional gendered nature of further and higher education and how this has been challenged by long term developments. The focus on managerialism and competition provides a context for a re-invigorated ‘agentic’ (associated with masculinity) gendering. Non-executive management in further and higher education is deeply unbalanced in gender terms. Senior management in universities is male dominated but significantly more balanced in colleges. Furthermore, in universities, the career dynamic which privileges research and the gendering of this in favour of males, more than outweighs some new career spaces open to women. In colleges, the 1990s evacuation of many male managers created openings for women but in a particularly tough economic and business environment in which some have suggested that women have been used to bolster an ‘agentic’ male styled approach to management; others that a more adaptive less stereotypical approach is emerging.     

Do Disruptive Visions Pay Off? The Impact of Disruptive Entrepreneurial Visions on Venture Funding

Entrepreneurs often articulate a vision for their venture that purports to fundamentally change, disturb, or re‐order the ways in which organizations, markets, and ecosystems operate. We call these visions disruptivevisions. Neglected in both the disruption and the impression management literature, disruptive visions are widespread in business practice. We integrate real options and impression management theories to hypothesize that articulating a disruptive vision increases the likelihood of the venture receiving funding but reduces the amount of funding obtained. A novel dataset of Israeli start‐ups shows that a standard deviation increase in disruptive vision communication increases the odds of receiving a first round of funding by 22 per cent, but reduces amounts of funds received by 24 per cent. A randomized online experiment corroborates these findings and further demonstrates that the expectation of extraordinary returns is the key mechanism driving investors’ sensemaking.     

Engaging workers in resource-poor environments: the case of social enterprise in Vietnam

Abstract

How do social enterprises acquire and retain employees in resource-poor environments? This paper presents findings from a study examining human resource management (HRM) practices in transitional economy social enterprises, where research on HRM remains underexplored. Drawing on social exchange theory and employing a multiple-case study design, we examine the ways in which four well-established social enterprises in Vietnam use high-involvement work practices (HIWPs) to acquire, retain and support the performance of workers. The findings suggest that HIWPs increase the social exchange value of social enterprise employment but raise questions about business sustainability. We identify evidence of a unique bundle of HIWPs, which comprise four dimensions of the original model: information, knowledge, power, and rewards, and one new dimension, namely family-building practices.     

The role of HRM practices in product development: Contextual ambidexterity in a US MNC’s subsidiary in India

Abstract

Recent studies have started exploring the linkages between organisational ambidexterity (OA) and HRM practices. OA is noted as a critical resource in achieving product, process, and business model innovations. By adopting an inductive case study of a US MNC subsidiary in India, we found empowerment-focused HRM practices were being used for exploration of new ideas and efficiency-focused HRM practices were adopted for the exploitation of the organisation’s existing strengths. Empowerment-focused HRM practices created a culture of openness and risk-taking, which facilitated the creation of an ambidextrous context. Further, ambidextrous learning was moderated by the adoption of a managerial/leadership style that focused on ‘mirroring competencies’ between the parent operation and its subsidiary. HRM practices were aimed at developing behaviours that valued the team-based co-development of graphic processor designs by means of a ‘parallel processing’ approach to product development. Additionally, the HRM practice of offering intrinsic employee rewards and both informal and formal training facilitated OA in delivering product innovation. This study represents a pioneering exploration of multiple levels of analysis (individual, functional, and organisational) for product innovation through the lenses of ambidexterity, innovation, and HRM practices. The implications for both theory and practice are also discussed.     

The paradox of employee psychological well-being practices: an integrative literature review and new directions for research

Abstract

It is well established that many HR practices aimed at increasing employees’ psychological wellbeing (PWB) and organisational performance conflict and even contradict one another. We address this long-standing issue by undertaking an innovative integrative literature review using the paradox metatheory as a lens. Unlike the contingency approach, a paradox perspective deems real-world tensions as normal, which can also be harnessed, and benefit employees and the organisation. We make three contributions; firstly, we identify contradictory employee PWB and organisational performance HR practices; secondly, we offer a solution in addressing the inherent tension between PWB and organisational performance by developing a new sensemaking conceptual framework; and thirdly, we offer a more nuanced perspective of prevailing arguments by distinguishing endogenous factors that organisations can influence to enhance the synergies between employee PWB and organisational performance HR practices. The intended impact of this paper is to instigate a paradigm shift and shape a new trajectory of thinking about how employee PWB and organisational performance practices can exist side-by-side.     

LRN 2016 SPECIAL – the antecedents and consequences of reduction within a supply chain collaboration orientation of CO2 emissions: evidence from China

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the impact of a predisposition towards supply chain collaboration (SCC) on the reduction of CO₂ emissions, along with its consequences, within the context of a growing recognition of green collaboration. The study draws upon three theoretical lenses, i.e. natural-resource-based view (NRBV), resource dependence theory (RDT) and institutional theory. It conceptualises a research framework in which the underlying constructs are defined and the hypotheses postulated. The empirical investigation was undertaken in China, resulting in data pertaining to 167 companies compiled from a questionnaire survey and subsequently analysed using structural equation modelling. The research findings reveal a causal relationship between two orientations, i.e. SCC orientation and a firm's CO₂ emission reduction orientation, and SCC-led CO₂ emission reduction and its impact on a firm's performance. The study suggests that, in a ‘low-carbon’ business environment, firms can guarantee the engagement of an SCC-led CO₂ emission reduction initiative towards broad environmental sustainability.     

Accounting for personal disposition and organizational context: connecting role ambiguity,public service motivation,and whistle-blowing in federal agencies

Abstract

Organizational psychologists and HRM scholars have long argued that prosocial organizational behaviors enhance organizational performance. However, prosocial behaviors are motivated by both self-interested and altruistic intent. Moreover, some have recognized that the factors that encourage shifts between egoistically and altruistically motivated prosocial behaviors may result from inherent tensions between individual disposition and situational contexts. As such, this study draws from literature examining prosocial behavior to evaluate whether work situations with clear task expectations dampen the extent to which prosocial personal dispositions diminish egoistically motivated prosocial behavior. Findings from a series of structural equation models reveal that altruistic dispositional traits diminish egoistic motives for engaging in one specific prosocial behavior, whistle-blowing. However, findings also reveal that work situations characterized by clear task expectations dampen the negative effect of altruistic dispositions on egoistically motivated whistle-blowing. Our findings imply that managers can adjust organizational contexts to capitalize on the enhanced benefits resulting from altruistically motivated prosocial behaviors.     

Making Sense of Ecopreneurs' Decisions to Sell Up

This article examines the phenomenon of values‐based firms being sold to larger mainstream firms. Its focus is on the sensemaking rationale offered by a New Zealand ecopreneur who sold an organic beverage company after 20 years at the helm. The company case study is presented through two enterprise development narratives based on alternative sensemaking modes. Key values‐related challenges arising in ecopreneurial business are identified, including (1) adhering to the founder's values, (2) growing the business sustainably, (3) deciding whether and when to expand ownership to cope with undercapitalization, (4) deciding who to bring in as new owners to ensure values alignment, (5) determining how and when the founder might leave and (6) ensuring the attractiveness of the sustainability values so that they might be retained. Other factors implicated in the sale of values‐based firms are also postulated. It is argued that, although ecopreneurs might be accused of selling out their principles by selling up, there is some evidence that eco‐brands are being maintained and that growth prospects could be improved after acquisition. Serial ecopreneurship may even extend social benefits. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.