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Article
Publication date: 1 March 2008

Nicholas Dew

The purpose of this paper is to draw together in one place knowledge that is relevant to the possible role of RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) in contractor monitoring. The…

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to draw together in one place knowledge that is relevant to the possible role of RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) in contractor monitoring. The paper uses multiple case studies and internet survey methods to explore several issues in RFIDenabled monitoring of contractors. It also offers some conceptual frameworks to help decision makers think through ways RFID might emerge as a contractor monitoring technology as well as some of the key reasons for using this mechanism of monitoring. The paper concludes with research challenges and key issues for practitioners.

Details

Journal of Public Procurement, vol. 8 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1535-0118

Book part
Publication date: 19 June 2019

Nicholas Dew and Stuart Read

Tucked in the back of Venkataraman’s 1997 work on the distinctive domain of entrepreneurship (DDE) lies a pointer to a question each individual must face when choosing to start a…

Abstract

Tucked in the back of Venkataraman’s 1997 work on the distinctive domain of entrepreneurship (DDE) lies a pointer to a question each individual must face when choosing to start a new venture; “is entrepreneurship worth it?” Inventorying costs associated with risk, uncertainty, and illiquidity against surpluses from financial and psychological factors unique to entrepreneurship, Venkataraman tempts readers to tally entrepreneurial returns. The authors summarize and integrate an academic study of these various cost and return components over the past 20 years using Venkataraman’s original framework. The authors find the answer to the question of “is entrepreneurship worth it?” varies with time. Researcher’s answer to the question has shifted from an early view that entrepreneurs sacrifice financial gain in exchange for soft psychological benefits to a more positive view that entrepreneurs are rewarded both financially and psychologically for the unique costs borne in the DDE. But the rewards are not immediate. In entrepreneur time, break-even emerges by gradually overcoming an initial deficit. As surpluses accrue, returns to entrepreneurs likely eventually exceed those of their wage-earning peers.

Book part
Publication date: 21 May 2009

Saras Sarasvathy, Nicholas Dew and Marc J. Ventresca

In “The next wave of entrepreneurship research,” Schoonhoven and Romanelli (hereafter S&R, this volume) set forth a broad-gauge review of recent work in entrepreneurship. They…

Abstract

In “The next wave of entrepreneurship research,” Schoonhoven and Romanelli (hereafter S&R, this volume) set forth a broad-gauge review of recent work in entrepreneurship. They challenge standard debates and focus on arguments and research that explore large-scale contextual variation in complex ecologies of entrepreneurship over time. Further, their review puts networks and teams, communities of expertise and knowledge, and collective activity at the center of new directions for entrepreneurial research. They contend, in this paper and elsewhere, that the important questions going forward “concern the mass effects of entrepreneurial activity on the creation of new firms and industries, the pioneering of emerging markets, the evolution of existing industries, the development of regional economies, and even … the competitiveness of nations” (Schoonhoven & Romanelli, 2001, p. 383).

Details

Entrepreneurial Strategic Content
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84855-422-1

Article
Publication date: 1 August 2008

Nicholas Dew, Saras D. Sarasvathy, Stuart Read and Robert Wiltbank

The “innovator's dilemma” suggests that by listening to current customers leading firms often lose their markets to upstart newcomers as a result. The purpose of this paper is to…

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Abstract

Purpose

The “innovator's dilemma” suggests that by listening to current customers leading firms often lose their markets to upstart newcomers as a result. The purpose of this paper is to understand how entrepreneurs successfully create such upstart firms and new markets, since this ought to have direct implications for theorizing about the innovator's dilemma.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper examines implications of recent studies in entrepreneurial expertise that show expert entrepreneurs use an effectual logic of non‐predictive control. It then connects these ideas to notions of firms and markets as artifacts of entrepreneurial action. Finally, it describes the implications of these concepts for the innovation strategies of large corporations, and specifically for firms periodically facing the innovator's dilemma.

Findings

The findings suggest that the practical answer to the innovator's dilemma is not to predict technology trajectories more accurately, or otherwise strive to build immortal firms in mortal markets. Instead, innovation managers should focus on building new markets. This will inevitably involve pluralizing decision‐making technologies by including some aspects of effectual decision making (used by expert entrepreneurs) into the decision‐making processes of large firms.

Originality/value

It is the basic contention of this paper that the innovator's dilemma is not the story it is usually portrayed as, i.e. technology commercialization. Instead, the core issue is investing in and building new markets. The paper brings a novel theoretical framework (from entrepreneurship) to bear on this problem.

Details

European Journal of Innovation Management, vol. 11 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1460-1060

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 10 July 2007

Nicholas Dew

This paper seeks to introduce the concept of abduction to strategists and show how abduction is an important influence on the effective design of strategies.

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Abstract

Purpose

This paper seeks to introduce the concept of abduction to strategists and show how abduction is an important influence on the effective design of strategies.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper defines what is meant by abduction, and describes why abduction is a pre-condition for intelligent designing. It reviews different characteristics of abduction, and suggests several situations in which abduction is used in strategic thinking. It describes a framework managers can use to get better at abductive thinking.

Findings

The paper finds that strategists can gain a lot from knowing how to use abduction well. Abduction is making inferences to the best explanation from information that is surprising or anomalous – both very typical in strategic decision making. Abduction is frequently integral to problem defining. Problem defining, in turn, sets the stage for possibility thinking, and choice of the best alternative. Therefore, good abductive thinking is a pre-condition for intelligent designing in strategy.

Originality/value

The paper shows that abduction is of practical relevance to business strategists, just as much as it is for the practice of law and medicine – two professions that have traditionally put it to effective use.

Details

Journal of Business Strategy, vol. 28 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0275-6668

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 21 September 2018

Mie Augier and Nicholas Dew

This paper reflects on the evolution of implicit and explicit behavioral ideas in the field of strategic management using Herbert Simon’s scholarship as a starting point, that is…

Abstract

This paper reflects on the evolution of implicit and explicit behavioral ideas in the field of strategic management using Herbert Simon’s scholarship as a starting point, that is, his emphasis on empirically driven; interdisciplinary theorizing allowing and enabling two-way street learning. We argue that historically, there were plenty of behavioral ideas embedded in the field and, together with the recent movement towards explicit “behavioral strategy,” these provide several possible paths for future developments in strategic management research. In the spirit of broadening the tent for behavioral strategy in the future (Hambrick & Crossland, 2018), we suggest some topics and approaches for behavioral strategy in empirically driven, interdisciplinary directions which allows also for two-way street learning between concepts and real-world strategic phenomena.

Content available
Book part
Publication date: 19 June 2019

Abstract

Details

Seminal Ideas for the Next Twenty-Five Years of Advances
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78973-262-7

Content available
Book part
Publication date: 21 May 2009

Abstract

Details

Entrepreneurial Strategic Content
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84855-422-1

Book part
Publication date: 21 May 2009

G.T. Lumpkin and Jerome A. Katz

Entrepreneurial firms are vital to economic growth because they bring creative insights and unique capabilities to the marketplace. The content of entrepreneurial firm strategies…

Abstract

Entrepreneurial firms are vital to economic growth because they bring creative insights and unique capabilities to the marketplace. The content of entrepreneurial firm strategies reflect the unique opportunities that the technological breakthroughs, operational efficiencies, and/or marketing genius of entrepreneurial firms bring into existence. Entrepreneurial firms are at the forefront of creating new classes of products and services, and sometimes even new industries. With them, they often bring new methods of competing. Volume 11 identifies several strategic dilemmas and strategic choices that organizations face in their efforts to be more entrepreneurial. It concludes with a lively debate between well-known scholars regarding the best ways to advance entrepreneurship as a scholarly field.

Details

Entrepreneurial Strategic Content
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84855-422-1

Content available
Article
Publication date: 10 July 2007

Jeanne Liedtka, Roger Martin and dt ogilvie

486

Abstract

Details

Journal of Business Strategy, vol. 28 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0275-6668

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