The Emergence of Proto-Institutions in the New Normal Business Landscape: Dialectic Institutional Work and the Dutch Drone Industry

In the current business landscape, in which technology-enabled entrepreneurship is part of the New Normal, regulatory institutional structures are in constant flux. Previous studies have framed the challenges facing entrepreneurs in mature organizational fields as avoiding the power of overbearing regulators long enough to establish the legitimacy of their ventures. In fields typified by New Normal conditions, however, regulatory frameworks for evaluating new technology-enabled ventures are often still lacking. Regulators may choose to actively reach out to entrepreneurs to arrive at a better understanding of the radical technological changes and high-frequency entrepreneurial behavioural adaptations that occur in these settings. To grasp how novel regulatory institutional structures come about in the New Normal business landscape, we conducted a processual study of the emergence of a new technology that is the Dutch remotely piloted aircraft systems (drone) industry between 2000 and 2018. Our findings show that regulatory proto-institutions result from dialectic institutional work in the form of structured interactions between entrepreneurs and regulators. Specifically, we present a process model that reveals how new regulatory structures evolve in contexts where high levels of technological and behavioural change induce systemic uncertainty, and enlarge the interdependence between entrepreneurs and regulators. We suggest that our process theory of proto-institutional emergence generalizes towards other organizational fields in which technology-enabled entrepreneurship has become the main driver of growth. Theoretically, our findings speak to the literatures on institutional work, proto-institutional emergence, and the New Normal business landscape.     

Strategic Choices at Entry and Relative Survival Advantage of Cooperatives versus Corporations in the US Bio‐Ethanol Industry, 1978‐2015

The sustainability of cooperatives versus corporations is hotly contested. We propose that strategic choices at entry can help to explain the endurance of these two governance modes. We hypothesize that cooperatives have a survival advantage if their major drawback – high coordination costs – is curbed by high levels of member engagement at founding. Our analysis of survival rates in the US bio‐ethanol industry shows that cooperatives outlive corporations (1) if investment size at founding is large (strong financial engagement), (2) if they enter de novo instead of de alio (strong product‐market engagement) and (3) if the cooperative venture has been carefully planned from the start (greenfield entry) instead of built upon the acquisition of an existing plant (strong venture‐building engagement). These findings caution against the view that a particular mode of governance is superior or inferior to another in all circumstances.     

Managing Technological,Sociopolitical, and Institutional Change in the New Normal

A New Normal environment for business has emerged in the years after the 2008 financial crisis based on numerous changes in the world's economic, technological, demographic, and sociopolitical factors. This combination of changes has created a New Normal environment for firms with major implications for managers, strategists, and entrepreneurs alike. It has resulted in an environment with new challenges and opportunities that are considerably different from what firms had to contend with in the years previous. In this paper, we present the main changes that characterize the current New Normal business environment and highlight some key implications for strategy and management. Then, we present the nine articles in this special issue dealing with different dimensions of this new environment for firms. Subsequently, we outline some future research questions that could help to advance our knowledge of the New Normal environment and its implications for firms and management theories. In examining the New Normal, it is important to be reminded that the world is indeed round and even small actions on one side of the globe can have a major impact on organizations on the other side of the globe.     

Ownership Structure of Cooperatives as an Environmental Buffer*

ABSTRACT In this paper, we propose that the ownership structure in the cooperative form acts as an environmental buffer. It is a mechanism to obtain stronger linkages with suppliers by internalizing them, and in this way, obtaining fundamental resources. Using this strategy, the cooperative form can isolate itself from adverse environments and from competition from other organizational forms. Although cooperatives have higher survival probability in any economic context, in rival ideological environments they have less support than other organizational forms. To test these ideas, we have chosen data from the Spanish olive oil milling industry for 1944–98. During this period, Spain changed from a dictatorial to a democratic regime and from a self‐subsistence economy in the post civil‐war period to a broad liberal international economy. The results show that, whereas other organizational forms are affected by economic and ideological influences, the cooperative form isolates itself by changing the competition level.     

Consumer cooperatives as an alternative form of governance: The case of the broadband industry

With a growing number of consumer cooperatives in non-agrarian industries such as energy and broadband, there is a need to better understand their emergence as a viable form of governance. In this context, the paper uses Mikami’s (2010) model on consumer cooperatives to explain their emergence as a result of their ability to generate additional equity financing through the membership market. It focuses on the motivations of consumers to financially contribute to a cooperative by examining the risks and benefits associated with the investment. Based on a survey of 759 consumers, it links their motivations for joining a cooperative to different forms of risks and benefits associated with the investment. It shows that the risks related to cost sharing and switching costs are important determinants for consumers. Other factors that affected the likelihood of joining a cooperative were expected benefits with respect to user network externalities and infrastructure gains.     

Understanding relational qualities of entrepreneurial learning: Towards a multi-layered approach

The aim of this paper is to present a multi-layered relational framework of entrepreneurial learning by embedding the conceptual tools of a continental thinker, Pierre Bourdieu, in a social constructionist paradigmatic approach. Through a longitudinal study based on participant observation and in-depth qualitative interviews, entrepreneurial learning processes of five nascent entrepreneurs who have formed a venture team have been examined as a case study. Relational qualities of entrepreneurial learning can be illuminated by exploring dispositions and different forms of capital that nascent entrepreneurs hold at the micro-individual level, which are inextricably linked to the meso-relational level of developing an entrepreneurial habitus as they navigate through the process of business venturing. Such a multi-layered conceptualisation of entrepreneurial learning transcends individual-, team-, firm- and network-level analyses of the subject by generating insights from both micro- and meso-layers.     

基于新一代信息技术产业发展的创新创业人才培养模式

我国七大战略新兴产业之一的新一代信息技术产业是否将成为国民经济发展的支柱产业,关键在于是否拥有支撑其发展的专业人才与人才培养战略。本文主要归纳了当前我国信息技术产业创新创业人才培养现状与不足,提出了新一代信息技术产业发展创新创业人才培养模式。     

Entrepreneurial versus cooperative social capital: The impact on operational performance

Research has extensively focused on how firms can become more competitive, by discovering new knowledge domains while exploiting current ones. Prior research has shown the positive impact of social capital on performance; however, there have been no empirical studies that distinguished between the architectures of social capital and how they impact the operational performance dimensions. Building upon the knowledge-based theory, we propose a model to examine the effects of the two architectures of social capital (entrepreneurial and cooperative) on individual dimensions of operational performance (quality, delivery, flexibility and cost). The hypotheses are tested using structural equation modelling and data collected from 182 companies in Ireland. The results show that the cooperative social capital archetype supports the operational performance dimensions, while the entrepreneurial social capital archetype only impacts the cost dimension. The findings extend the current understanding about the complex relationships among the architectures of social capital and provide guidance for managers on how to leverage their investments in social capital to enhance specific operational performance dimensions.     

In Search of the Impactful and the Interesting: Swings of the Pendulum?

In this article we reflect on our time as editors of JMS during the period 2003–09. First we describe the context as we saw it on assuming editorship of the Journal and the actions that we took to improve the quality of scholarship published in the journal in order to set JMS on the trajectory to become a world‐leading Journal. We articulate our view of what quality means in this context and observe that we eschewed the USA–Europe divide. Rather, to be publishable, all papers had to meet the highest standards relative to their epistemological assumptions. Finally, we address two important challenges facing the Journal, and indeed management research in general, and consider what they mean for the future of JMS, notably in relation to open access publishing and to provide greater practical relevance. We conclude that the latter represents a swing of the pendulum towards the kinds of papers published in the early years of JMS but that recent developments in JMS provide new conceptual frameworks and empirical methods that contribute to enhanced insights for practice.     

Innovation performance and the role of clustering at the local enterprise level: a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis approach

ABSTRACT

This study, utilizes an innovative methodological approach, fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), investigating the drivers of heterogeneous geographies characterizing English Local Economic Partnerships (LEPs). The fsQCA technique offers a novel configurational alternative to regression-based approaches investigating the effects of clustering in conjunction with firm-level innovation, university third-sector activity (TSA) and entrepreneurship, on LEPs innovation performance. The findings, offer contributions to the theories of industrial clusters and innovation, regional innovation systems, knowledge spillovers and entrepreneurial university innovation within LEPs. First, supporting fsQCAs, no individual variable generates either a positive/negative innovation outcome. Second, while all positive innovation recipes include presence of the cluster variable, for negative innovation recipes, only one does not identify absence of clustering as relevant. Given that the cluster variable does not appear in any recipes without at least one of the other variables suggests activity concentration does not exist in isolation to generate innovation outcomes without other localized conditions existing, e.g. firm-level innovation. Third, there is evidence for the non-cluster-based aspects of knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship with respect to university activity and the entrepreneurial university concept. Instead, roles of entrepreneurship and university TSA, while important, appear to be more peripheral and geographically context specific.     

Entrepreneurship in action: bringing together the individual,organizational and institutional dimensions of entrepreneurial action

There is increasing recognition that entrepreneurship research needs to achieve a better balance between studying to entrepreneurial activities and setting these activities in their wider context. It is important that these good intentions are realized and one way of doing this is to bring together ethnographic research with concepts from sociology and from pragmatist thinking. In this study, field research material is interwoven with a set of key concepts to ensure that balanced attention is paid to issues at the levels of the enterprising individual, the organization and societal institutions. The field research is innovative in combining depth study of several enterprises and their founders with the analysis of broader aspects of ‘entrepreneurship in society’. It achieves this through a process of ‘everyday ethnographic’ observation, reading, conversation and ongoing analysis. In the spirit of a pragmatist conception of social science, the underlying logic of entrepreneurial action is identified. This is a logic which needs to be appreciated by all of those who wish to understand and/or engage with the entrepreneurial dimension of contemporary social and economic life.     

新型农业经营主体培育的体制机制创新研究

农村基本经营制度的新型农业经营主体是以家庭承包为基础的,发展为现在以家庭农场,土地股份合作、联合社、资金互助合作、加工合作社等多种形式,这种经营主体对农村经济发展起到很大的促进作用,但其发展的体制机制发展还存在很多障碍,如规模小、效益差、土地流转问题和农业企业融资问题等,根据这些障碍,提出新型农业经营主体培育的体制机制创新原则,最后提出相应的政策建议。     

Can employee ownership and human resource management policies clash in worker cooperatives? Lessons from a defunct cooperative

The article analyzes the interaction between employee ownership, HRM policies and practices, and HRM outcomes in what was the world's biggest industrial worker cooperative for decades, and now defunct, Fagor Electrodomésticos. Using longitudinal internal data and detailed interviews with key stakeholders, this paper sheds light on how employee ownership conditioned HRM policies. HRM outcomes—such as job satisfaction and absenteeism—are also analyzed over a long period of time. Chronic nepotism when recruiting new members, failures in the training policy, impoverished and Taylorist working systems, and reverse dominance hierarchies are analyzed as factors that increased free riding and caused low satisfaction and the disengagement of working members. This case study contributes to the literature on HRM and worker cooperatives as it provides some insights that are rarely found in that literature. It also provides guidance to worker cooperatives about increasing the fit between employee ownership and HRM policies and outcomes.     

The moderating effect of the technological level of industry on the relationship between innovation and corporate reputation

Corporate reputation is one of the principal intangible assets a firm possesses. The entrepreneurial, innovative nature of the firm has been recognized as one of the antecedents of corporate reputation. However, specialist literature has paid scant attention to the relative importance of an entrepreneurial nature as an element that helps to improve corporate reputation in comparison with other antecedents such as product quality. Even less is known about exactly how this antecedent influences corporate reputation among different stakeholders. Little is also known about possible variations in how this antecedent is perceived by different industries. Thus, with a view to contributing to knowledge on how corporate reputation is formed, derived from the innovative nature of the firm, this article attempts to analyze how the environment affects the causal relation between the entrepreneurial, innovative nature of the firm and its corporate reputation. We particularly analyze the environment according to its technological level, distinguishing between three types of industry: high tech, medium tech, and low tech, using a sample of 308 US firms and structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques. The empirical test provided some unexpected and interesting results.     

Museum pricing: challenges to theory development and practice

• The museum sector has undergone considerable change in the last few decades, which has been a result of both internal and external forces. The topic of pricing in museums, however, has attracted little interest from researchers in the field despite the sector's need to understand it better. This study aimed to address this gap in knowledge. Results of a comprehensive literature review on pricing highlight that the topic of pricing in museums is problematic, as a range of issues, social, political and often value-laden, must be considered before pricing decisions can be made. The study highlights that there is diversity in the sector with regard to pricing, but that museums generally adopt a unilateral approach to pricing. Researchers in entrepreneurial marketing have noted that conventional pricing theory is being turned on its head and they argue that deciding what prices to charge represents one of the more entrepreneurial strategies for organisations. This study indicates that, within the context of museums, marketers are failing to recognise and capitalise on such pricing opportunities. Approaches to setting multiple museum pricing strategies, depending on the market context, are proposed in this paper. In this way, knowledge of museum pricing can optimise the organisational outcomes of museums while continuing to meet their social responsibilities.

Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

基于大学生课外科技活动的大学生创新创业教育机制研究

创新人才培养是当前高等教育面临的重大课题,建立全新的符合理论要求的人才培养体系固然最为理想,但对于教育改革一线的实际操作者来说,不可能指望一夕之际达成此种理想状态。于我们而言,如何立足于现有高等教育架构和实际,在操作领域进行"渐变"方是工作方向。正是在这一背景下,笔者提出了基于大学生课外科技活动的大学生创新创业教育机制研究,并从学生课外科技活动对创新创业教育的契合性、学生课外科技活动促进创新创业教育的有效实践等方面进行论证,并尝试实际合理的工作平台。     

Employee ownership motivation and individual risk-taking behaviour: a cross-level analysis of Taiwan's privatized enterprises

Privatization has long been a prevailing strategy worldwide for promoting economic liberalization. During privatization of state-owned enterprises employees are often encouraged, as part of policy design, to become equity shareholders through buying priority shares reserved for them with the goal of expediting privatization and building employees' organizational identification. Using risk-taking behaviour as a lens to observe individual-level entrepreneurial orientations after privatization, this study, in a sample of 328 employees in 14 privatized firms in Taiwan, aims to examine the behavioural consequences of two distinct types of motivation behind employee ownership and the contextual influences on such relationships. Because of the hierarchical nature of the individual- and firm-level data, we use the hierarchical linear modelling (HLM) method to test the hypotheses and find that intrinsic motivation ex ante for employee ownership can cultivate innovative behaviour ex post, whereas extrinsic motivation yields the similar effect only in the presence of a climate of self-determination and the absence of environmental hostility.     

农科类研究生创新能力培养的途径与方法

研究生创新能力的培养已成为我国当前高层次人才培养的热点问题。特别是我国农业生产由传统农业向现代农业转变的过程,农科研究生的培养更应以实践为基础,准确把握农科类研究生创新能力的结构与内涵,通过转变观念、调整专业设置、健全创新教育管理机制、加强创业教育等途径,深化农科类研究生教育改革,努力培养大批创新型的农科高级人才。     

Creating space for play/invention – concepts of space and organizational entrepreneurship

This paper focuses on how one can relate management thinking/practices to entrepreneurial processes in the context of formal organization. In order to do this we develop a number of related ‘spatial concepts’ providing us with the possibility of describing entrepreneurship as a ‘creation and use of space for play/innovation’. Using concepts of space, the managerial and the entrepreneurial dimensions and perspectives on organizing creativity become highly visible in the case studied. This is a field study (within the ethnographic tradition) focusing on an organizational transformation of a former public authority into a competitive limited company. A distinction between managerialism and ‘entrepreneurship as event’ is proposed as conceptually fruitful as well as useful for discussing recommendations to managers for how to handle entrepreneurial processes. A minimal and contextual role for management is suggested when aspiring to support the creations of space for play/invention, for example, for entrepreneurship as forms of organizational creativity.     

自主学习与合作学习在高职高专英语教学中的应用

新一轮课程改革将带来学生学习方式的变革,大学英语课堂创新教学是促进学生进行自主与合作学习,培养学习能力的有效阵地。本文从自主与合作学习的目的入手,对其理论基础进行阐述,并从英语教学现状来分析必要性,对自主合作学习在英语教学中的实施过程展开探索,总结了实施过程所取得的成果、存在的问题及需要进一步探讨的问题。本文立足于高职高专的英语课堂教学,并以东北石油大学秦皇岛分校英语教学改革为实例,这种英语教学新模式的实验经验表明可以在一定程度上提高英语课堂教学效率。