The Surprising Duality of Jugaad: Low Firm Growth and High Inclusive Growth

Western theories on creativity emphasize the importance of access to resources and the generation of innovations as a source of sustainable competitive advantage for firms. However, perhaps the emphasis on slack resources and the firm as the level of analysis may be less appropriate for understanding the benefits of individual creative problem solving in resource-poor environments of the east; focusing solely on the firm is not sufficiently inclusive and may underestimate the benefits of creative problem solving under resource scarcity. Through an inductive interpretive case study of 12 problem solvers in the highly resource-poor environment of rural India, we identified the antecedents, dimensions and duality of outcomes for an Indian cultural source of creative problem solving called jugaad. Jugaad relies on assertive defiance, trial-and-error experiential learning and the recombination of available resources to improvise a frugal quick-fix solution. Our inductive framework provides new insights into the dual outcomes of creative problem solving from an eastern perspective; jugaad is unlikely to be a source of competitive advantage for firm growth but represents a source of enhanced wellbeing for inclusive growth.     

Operationalizing opportunities in entrepreneurship research: use of data envelopment analysis

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.     

Brand equity in the professional service context: Analyzing the impact of employee role behavior and customer-employee rapport

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.     

Why and how to compete through sustainability: a review and outline of trends influencing firm and network-level transformation

International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal - This article reviews and discusses how to compete with sustainability by reviewing the literature about sustainability, business models,...     

Processes in collaborative entrepreneurship: a longitudinal case study of how multiple actors exploit a radically new opportunity

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.     

Reduced opportunities for regional renewal: The role of rigid threat responses among a region's established firms

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.     

Network capability,innovativeness, and performance: a multidimensional extension for entrepreneurship

Abstract

Small- and start-up firms in the high-tech industry usually engage in networking to overcome resource, knowledge, and competence constraints in creative, innovation-based competition. Quite often, however, network relationships fail due to lack of network capability (NC), defined as the ability to manage and gain benefits from external relationships. In the present study, we propose and examine an updated five-dimension NC construct and test its effect on innovativeness and performance. Two independent high-tech samples of small firms and start-ups support measurement properties of the proposed NC construct and suggest that the often-overlooked dimension in NC research of network relationship building is important to include in a complete NC construct. Doing so can help explain organizational innovativeness and effects on the customer, sales, and innovation performance more effectively. As a result, we find support for the proposed NC scale and the importance of network capabilities for small companies and start-ups to remain competitive.     

Microfinance Traps and Relational Exchange Norms: A Field Study of Women Entrepreneurs in Tanzania

In interdependent social groups, microfinance traps occur when conflicts arise between borrowers’ affective ties related to family needs and instrumental ties related to obligations toward their loan group. Thus, the social capital that facilitates microfinancing can lead to conflicting obligations toward business needs and economic obligations toward family. Building on an inductive field study among female entrepreneurs in Tanzania, we conceptualize microfinance traps. By using relational contract theory to interpret the qualitative data, we argue that microfinance traps can be reduced by balancing role integrity, preserving norms and reciprocity, and harmonizing the social matrix toward the family and loan group.     

Non-linear relationship between industrial service offering and sales growth: The moderating role of network capabilities

In an effort to approach the mixed findings regarding the relationship between a firm's industrial service offering and its performance, this study analyzes the impact of the industrial service offering on sales growth and the moderating role of network capabilities. The proposed research model is tested based on data from 91 Finnish manufacturing firms. Our results demonstrate a non-linear effect of the service offering on sales growth. We also find that network capabilities enhance the effect of the service offering on sales growth. For managers of manufacturing firms, the results imply that the active development of a comprehensive service offering should be implemented in conjunction with the development of organizational capabilities, such as network capabilities, to create value and promote improved performance.     

Entrepreneurial orientation and network board diversity in network organizations

This study extends the concept of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) to the network level to investigate how diversity among officers serving on network organization boards affects network-level entrepreneurial orientation (NEO). Using data from 53 strategic network organizations across five years, we found that insider/outsider and functional diversity among network board members promotes NEO. The results also demonstrate that board group tenure moderates the influence of diversity in opposite ways. The impact of board insider/outsider diversity is stronger in networks in which board members lack long tenure. On the contrary, the effect of functional diversity on network entrepreneurial orientation is stronger in network organizations with tenured boards.