Search results

We offer a theoretical account of how two types of bricolage influence the entrepreneurial process. The first type involves social relationships or physical or functional assets, and thus pertains to an entrepreneurʼs external resources used in the instantiation of operations of a new venture. The second type pertains to an entrepreneurʼs internal resources‐experiences, credentials, knowledge, and certifications‐which the entrepreneur appropriates, assembles, modifies and deploys in the presentation of a narrative about the entrepreneurial process. We argue that both types of bricolage are essential to the success of a venturing attempt.

The emerging perspectives of entrepreneurial ecosystems, bricolage and effectuation highlight the interaction between the entrepreneur and the surrounding community, and its potential for creative resource acquisition and utilization. However, empirical work on how this process actually unfolds remains scarce. This paper aims to study the interaction between the opportunity construction process and the development of resources in the surrounding ecosystem.

This paper is a qualitative analysis of the extreme case of Aalto Entrepreneurship Society (Aaltoes), a newly founded organization successfully promoting entrepreneurship within a university merger with virtually no resources, based on interviews of six key contributors and four stakeholder organizations.

The opportunity construction process both supported and was supported by two key resource generating mechanisms. Formulating and opportunistically reformulating the agenda for increasing potential synergy laid the groundwork for mutual benefit. Proactive concretization enhanced both initial resource allocation and sustaining input to the process through offering tangible instances of specific opportunities and feedback.

Although based on a single case study in a university setting, proactive concretization emerges as a promising direction for further investigations of the benefits and dynamics of entrepreneur–ecosystem interaction in the opportunity construction process.

Intentionally creating beneficial entrepreneur–ecosystem interaction and teaching proactive concretization becomes a key goal for educators of entrepreneurship.

The paper extends an understanding of creative resource generation and utilization in the opportunity construction process. The role of proactive concretization was emphasized in the interaction of the entrepreneur and the ecosystem, creating virtuous spirals of entrepreneurial activity.

Entrepreneurial opportunities come in various forms and are influenced by socio-economic conditions. Increasingly entrepreneurs are being asked to take a more balanced approach between financial and environmental considerations when assessing an opportunity. The aim of this chapter is to discuss how entrepreneurial opportunities need to take an economics and sustainability perspective in the competitive global marketplace in order to keep up to date with contemporary business practices. This will enable a more transdisciplinary approach to the opportunity recognition process that integrates multiple disciplinary frameworks.

The aim of the study is to examine the effects of opportunity creation and discovery on the performance of family firms. Specifically, from the tenets of dynamic capabilities and organizational contingency perspectives, this study proposes and tests a framework of how family firms' creation and discovery behavior impact venture growth and the conditions under which such impact can vary.

The study uses moderated-hierarchical regression to analyze survey data from 156 family-owned small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating within a sub-Saharan African economy.

The findings indicate that creation behavior has a curvilinear U-shaped relationship with venture growth, while discovery behavior has a direct positive relationship with venture growth. Further analysis reveals that the curvilinearity of the U-shaped relationship between creation and venture growth will be stronger for older family firms than for younger ones.

The study findings may be limited by the cross-sectional nature of the data and the specific focus on family firms only.

The results highlight the significance of pursuing both opportunities among family firms. In fact, both creation and discovery opportunities are significant drivers of family firm growth, albeit in different capacities. Relatedly, managers of older family firms (compared to younger firms) can invest more in exploiting creative opportunities.

From these findings, governments and other stakeholders should create enabling environment and institutional frameworks conducive to exploiting opportunities by entrepreneurial firms.

The study is novel – as it provides unique findings on the performance implications of creation and discovery behavior of entrepreneurial family firms within developing economies.

This case study outlined the strategic and organizational issues faced by an entrepreneurial firm operating in an emerging economy. While the traditional view is “more for more” and “less for less” with respect to quality and price, the medical devices sector demands “more for less” in an emerging economy such as India, i.e. the market demands quality products at affordable prices. This case was written to equip students with the knowledge of how entrepreneurs can overcome certain barriers and use technology to recognize and exploit an opportunity, using the Indian health-care industry as an example. The key learning outcomes for the case include the following:

• Entrepreneurs define their own market, come up with innovations and create a completely new market with suitable customer value proposition.

• Entrepreneurial opportunity recognition comes from being prepared, having prior knowledge of customers and the market and having a strong network.

• An entrepreneurial preference for error of omission or commission is the determining factor when deciding whether to exploit a recognized opportunity or not.

• Entrepreneurs exploit an opportunity by giving special emphasis on their entry and risk reduction strategy.

• A technology-based product with a combination of services that will create its own product ecosystem with data is the primary goal.

The Indian health-care sector is one of the largest sectors in India and incorporates the medical devices sector, and the heart monitor segment especially represents a huge untapped opportunity. India has the highest number of deaths because of heart disease in the world, yet there is no mechanism for affordable heart monitoring, which results in large number of deaths. As existing products are either B2B or unaffordable, there is an opportunity to leverage technology to come up with cgiq products similar to blood pressure and sugar monitors. However, there are certain challenges unique to the market and product. The case described how two young entrepreneurs founded a company called Agatsa and overcame certain challenges to create a credit card-sized ECG device and the importance of building an ecosystem in a new market. Some specific issues that the case posed included the following: will it be possible for Agatsa to come up with an ecosystem to monitor heart functioning and will that be accepted by the stakeholders in an emerging market such as India? Should Agatsa have a product-driven strategy or a data-driven strategy? Will Agatsa be able to find the right business model to create and capture value?

MBA in courses such as entrepreneurship development, new venture creation and entrepreneurship in emerging markets.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

The purpose of this paper is to adapt the design-based learning (DBL) approach for entrepreneurship education. Having in mind the aim to improve the innovative thinking competence of nascent entrepreneurs that operate at the fuzzy front end of innovation, the research identifies key characteristics of the co-design-based learning (Co-DBL) approach for nurturing entrepreneurs in the digital age.

The exploratory research is based on qualitative and quantitative analysis. To get feedback and to evaluate the progress of innovative thinking competence of Co-DBL participants, the pre- and post-co-design workshop surveys were administrated. The statistical analysis of the surveys was carried out to determine the effects of the Co-DBL.

The research has revealed key dimensions relevant to Co-DBL in entrepreneurial learning (features of the project, facilities for project activities, features of the teaching process, features of learning context and assessment) and found the corresponding characteristics. The results of the current study show the perspective of the suggested Co-DBL approach in entrepreneurial learning to improve creativity, analyticity, intuition and flexibility of thinking of nascent entrepreneurs.

This paper presents a new look at co-design that can be applied to entrepreneurship education to enhance innovative thinking, improve the ability of nascent entrepreneurs to identify and create opportunity and to tolerate ambiguity and conditions of uncertainty in the search and development of innovative solutions.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the influence of entrepreneurs’ human and relational capital on the rapid internationalization of their firms from two economically different contexts.

This study was developed using data that were collected from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor of Spain and Chile. A logistic regression analysis was used to examine and compare the influence of some elements of entrepreneurs’ human and relational capital on the likelihood of their firms’ rapid internationalization.

The results revealed that Chilean entrepreneurs rely more on their formal education or experience to rapidly internationalize their firms. In contrast, Spanish entrepreneurs complement their formal education with their relational capital to conduct international entrepreneurial activities.

The implications of this study are related to the role that public policies play in promoting these types of entrepreneurial initiatives.

This study presents several contributions. First, it advances the understanding of entrepreneurial internationalization in emerging economic contexts. Second, it provides a comparative study regarding entrepreneurial internationalization, which is considered a fundamental current in the field of international entrepreneurship. Finally, this comparative study improves our understanding of the influence of different economic contexts on entrepreneurial internationalization.

El objetivo de este trabajo es comparar la influencia del capital humano y relacional de los emprendedores de dos contextos económicamente diferentes sobre la rápida internacionalización de sus empresas.

Este estudio se desarrolló utilizando datos recopilados del Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) de España y Chile. Se utilizó un análisis de regresión logística para examinar y comparar la influencia de algunos elementos del capital humano y relacional de los emprendedores sobre la probabilidad de que lleven a cabo una rápida internacionalización de sus empresas.

Los resultados revelaron que los emprendedores chilenos dependen más de su educación formal o experiencia para internacionalizar rápidamente sus empresas. Por el contrario, los emprendedores españoles complementan su educación formal con su capital relacional para llevar a cabo actividades empresariales internacionales.

Las implicaciones de este estudio están relacionadas con el rol que juegan las políticas públicas en la promoción de este tipo de iniciativas emprendedoras.

Este estudio presenta varias contribuciones. Primero, avanza en la comprensión de la internacionalización emprendedora en contextos económicos emergentes. En segundo lugar, proporciona un estudio comparativo sobre la internacionalización emprendedora, que se considera una corriente fundamental en el campo del Emprendimiento Internacional. Finalmente, este estudio comparativo mejora la comprensión de la influencia de los diferentes contextos económicos en la internacionalización emprendedora.

In this discussion, we sketch the motivation and design for a co-terminal master's degree in Entrepreneurial Science and Technology. We aim the degree specifically at science and engineering undergraduates who would go on to (1) individual or technology management positions in established organizations, (2) entrepreneurship in the public, private, or nonprofit sectors, or (3) graduate work in engineering or science or professional degrees, including business, medicine, law, or policy. The goal would be to give students concise but complete skill-sets in entrepreneurship and teamwork, and effective career networks across diverse professions. It is our hope that this can be done within an intense one-year curriculum, such that students would remain technically current (and possibly develop the application of their technical research during the degree). We discuss alternate and existing models for entrepreneurship education and explain how our conception differs.

This case study outlines the strategic and organisational issues faced by an entrepreneurial firm operating in an emerging economy. This case study has been written to equip students with how entrepreneurs can overcome certain barriers and use technology to achieve product–market fit, taking the Indian laundry sector as an example. The following are the key learnings for the case: start-ups need to continuously assess the product–market fit to organise a highly unorganised sector; market entry and expansion modes require proper evaluation of available entry and expansion modes before pursual; franchising decisions require firm-specific and location-specific considerations; and careful consideration given to celebrity endorsement will result in increased sales.

The Indian laundry market was a highly unorganised market and presented an untapped opportunity. While the market opportunity was enormous, the existing solutions comprised local vendors that may not provide end-to-end services (washing, ironing, etc.). The case study described how a young entrepreneur, Arunabh Sinha, overcame certain challenges to achieve a product–market fit for metro cities and later expanded to Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities in India as well. However, the challenges remained, as the firm expanded by using a franchise model, and other modes of business were required to be evaluated as well.

The case study is suitable for students pursuing MBA courses in marketing, service marketing and entrepreneurship development.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS3: Entrepreneurship.

Following the current debate on the importance of external sources of knowledge as predictors of small- and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) performance, this chapter aims to open the black box of the innovation process. Since it is still unclear how and what internal capabilities are involved in that process, this chapter demonstrates the relevant mediating role of knowledge integration mechanisms (KIMs) as facilitators of firms’ innovation. A sample containing 98 Italian SMEs operating in different industries is analyzed to test the proposed theoretical model through a regression analysis. The results suggest that KIMs operate as a full mediator in the relationship between the depth of external knowledge sources and opportunity exploitation. In conclusion, theoretical and managerial ­implications of this study are presented.