Search results

Emergence is the kernel concept of complexity science. Lack of precision when people refer to “emergent properties” hinders the research of complex systems. The purpose of this paper is to develop a formal definition of emergence to make it intrinsic to a system and to integrate different views on emergence.

Based on the modeling framework of entity grammar systems (EGS), a formal definition of emergence is proposed and a theorem is obtained for exploring the producing conditions of emergence. With the definition and theorem, three views on emergence are unified using the same formalism of EGS.

The concept of emergence can be formally defined in the framework of EGS to integrate the “downward causation” and “upward causation” views of emergence and makes emergent properties intrinsic to a system. It is possible to control the production of emergence when the system is analyzed using the formalism of EGS.

A formal definition of emergence is proposed in this paper. This work combines the modeling power of EGS with the formal analysis of emergence, which will prompt the further application of EGS in modeling, simulation, and analysis of complex systems in many fields and will provide practical tools for complexity research.

Theories of outstanding, historically notable, leadership have traditionally emphasized charisma. Recent research, however, suggests that charisma may represent only one pathway to outstanding leadership. Outstanding leadership may also emerge from ideological and pragmatic leadership. In this article, we examine the conditions influencing the emergence and performance of charismatic, ideological, and pragmatic leaders. It is argued that different conditions operating at the environmental, organizational, group, and individual levels influence the emergence and performance of each of these three types of leaders. Implications for understanding the origins and impact of charismatic, ideological, and pragmatic leaders are discussed.

We draw on an in-depth investigation into the phenomenon of community radio in India to identify the emergence of an institutional logic in a field. We delineate five stages of emergence, starting with problematization of dominant logics and ending with formation of an institutionally complex field. Further, we highlight how such a process results in organizational forms that reflect ongoing struggles among dominant logics and the emerging logic. We contribute to neoinstitutional studies on the emergence of social objects and also draw the attention of emergence theorists to the contested manner in which emergence takes place in the social world.

In social theory, emergence is the process of novelty (1) creation, (2) growth, and (3) formation into a recognizable social object, process, or structure. Emergence is recognized as important for the existence of novel features of society such as new organizations, new practices, or new relations between actors. In this introduction to the volume on emergence, we introduce a framework for examining emergence processes and theories that have been applied or can be applied to each of the three stages. We also review each volume chapter and discuss their relation to each other. Finally, we make suggestions on the future of research on social emergence processes.

Emergence is a key concept in service-dominant (SD) logic; however, the literature is neonatal on the underlying mechanisms that lead to emergence within service ecosystems. This study aims to address the call by Vargo et al. (2022) for understanding the role of actor engagement in emergence of novel outcomes, by identifying a process of how various actor roles in entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE) emerge as resource through the actor engagement.

Following a longitudinal design, this study conduct interviews from 20 respondents over eight months in three phases (group interviews, post-training, post-funding). This study analyzes the respondents’ engagement in an entrepreneurial service context. This study uses qualitative inductive approach and thematic analysis.

Results show that actor roles emerge as role expectations from essential provider and beneficiary position in a service ecosystem through actor role readiness, manifested as engagement properties in the actor engagement process. This study identifies five actor roles and their corresponding role readiness dimensions that emerge. Based on these propositions through which the authors position generic actor roles emergence within the actor engagement process in a service ecosystem.

This paper advances the understanding of micro-level process in emergence literature in SD logic by providing a conceptual understanding of emergence of actor roles as a resource through actor engagement. By grounding the study in EE, this study provides empirical evidence to the underlying mechanisms at the micro level of resource emergence process in a service ecosystem.

Despite extensive research on personality and leader emergence, very little is known about the process by which employees become or emerge as leaders based on their performance. Integrating functional leadership theory and a behavior perspective, the authors aim to explore the parallel multiple behavioral mediators in the conscientiousness–leader emergence link.

By integrating a field survey study and two experimental studies, the authors use parallel multiple mediation analysis to explore the mechanisms by which conscientiousness leads to high levels of leader emergence.

Conscientiousness is positively associated with employee leader emergence. Employee functional behaviors are positively associated with leader emergence. The authors consistently found that the effect of conscientiousness on leader emergence is primarily explained by increases in task- and change-oriented behaviors but not relations-oriented behaviors.

Organizations can design relevant training programs to cultivate and enhance employees' functional behavior, as the study findings suggest that an effective way to translate employees' conscientiousness into their leader emergence is to improve their task- and change-oriented behaviors.

This research highlights the consistent and important role of employees' functional behaviors in the form of task- and change-oriented behaviors linking conscientiousness to leader emergence.

This paper aims to focus on the characteristics of a two-tier network featuring internal subject cooperation and external embedded cooperation in the context of regional innovation systems (RISs) and explore the influence of network characteristics on knowledge emergence.

Using social network analysis, a two-tier internal and external cooperation network of a RIS is constructed. A negative binomial regression method is used to explore the effects of the characteristics of these two-tier internal and external networks on knowledge emergence, the moderating effect of the cooperation knowledge base in this context is investigated and grouping and quantile regressions are used to conduct heterogeneity analysis.

The scale of the internal cooperation network has a positive effect on knowledge emergence, and the betweenness centralization of the internal cooperation network has an inverted U-shaped effect on knowledge emergence. The scale and structural holes of the external embedded network have an inverted U-shaped effect on knowledge emergence. Furthermore, the internal cooperation knowledge base weakens the influence of the external embedded network on knowledge emergence.

This research may enlighten policymakers with respect to improving the scale and structure of the RIS cooperation network and matching the embedded network based on the internal cooperation knowledge base to promote knowledge emergence.

This research contributes to the study of knowledge emergence by exploring the influence of a two-tier network structure and scale characteristics on knowledge emergence in RISs. This paper also extends the framework of relevant research by integrating the internal cooperation knowledge base into the analysis of externally embedded cooperation and knowledge emergence.

Research has demonstrated that varying degrees and combinations of individual traits, behaviors and characteristics influence the emergence of leaders in teams. While existing models have shown that such variables affect leader choice independently and interactively, the overall findings suggest that there is still a lack of research on a potentially significant factor, the impact of personal reputation on leader selection in autonomous work teams (AWTs), an increasingly ubiquitous team practice in organizations. This preliminary review thus aims to offer a general overview of personal reputation and its effects on leader emergence in the context of AWTs.

By surveying extant literature on team leader emergence, this review has identified that the potential impact of personal reputation on leader selection in teams is significant yet largely ignored.

Models of leader emergence in teams should incorporate the realistic assumption that teams formed in organizations are often comprised of individuals who have information on others either directly or indirectly. Personal reputation based on an individual’s history thus moderates how one’s behaviors or traits exhibited become contextualized in the overall assessment of leader desirability and selection in teams.

Based on a review of existing research on leadership emergence and personal reputation, this work contends that the external validity and predictive value of leader emergence models would greatly benefit from the inclusion of employee reputations as a moderating variable in the future assessment of the leader emergence process in AWTs.

By designing models that explain the potential effects of personal reputations on leader emergence in self-managed teams, team members and managers can be better elucidated and ultimately improve their understanding of the process of the evaluation and selection of team leaders.

Despite the prolific research on leader emergence, there is still a paucity of studies examining personal reputational effects on leader selection, especially in the context of AWTs. This work is the first review piece calling for the inclusion of personal reputation, a substantive factor overlooked and excluded in previous models, to enhance the current understanding of leader emergence in AWTs.

In pursuit of socio-economic growth, scholars and policymakers in emerging economies continues to show interest in understanding technology-based start-up (i.e. tech start-up) emergence, to help mitigate persistent failure experienced during commercialization. Howbeit, some scholars lamented that extant studies that investigated tech start-up emergence are mostly fragmented, because they focus on specific event/sub-process in tech start-up gestation. Thus, this study aims to conduct a systematic literature review to discover, harmonize and develop a framework that describes the interaction among varying dimensions of events/sub-processes that characterizes tech start-up emergence in an emerging economy.

To conduct this study, the authors engaged a concept-centric systematic literature review. Having developed a search protocol, the authors searched through information systems database, and other relevant discipline databases, to select relevant articles for review.

The systematic review revealed various dimensions of events (i.e. opportunity discovery and selection, team formation and domain consensus, bootstrapping and the development of minimum viable product and market experimentation feedback) that are critical to tech start-up emergence. Most prior studies are isolated, as they focus their investigation on specific event. Thus, from this review, the authors developed a framework harmonizing various dimensions of events characterizing emergence of a viable tech start-up.

The researchers conducted this study in response to lingering call for harmonized study that provides in-depth description of how different dimensions of events interact and characterize tech start-up emergence. Consequently, the study resulted in a descriptive framework. Furthermore, the findings highlight some practical implications and proposes new study directions as future research agenda for scholars interested in tech start-up emergence.

The purpose of this paper is to build a research model to examine the effects of business planning on the new venture emergence, as well as to examine the moderating effects of innovativeness of products.

Four hypotheses are put forward and examined by hierarchical binary logistic regression. The data of this paper are based on the first two waves of data from Chinese Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics project.

Results show that engaging in business planning has a positive effect on the new venture emergence, and the timing of business planning does not affect the new venture emergence significantly. This study also finds that the innovativeness of products has a positive moderating effect on the relationship between the timing of business planning and the new venture emergence.

This study has some limitations. The innovativeness of products is measured by a single indicator, which may not completely reflect the meaning of the attribute. Moreover, this study explores new ventures only in the nascent stage.

The study is useful for entrepreneurs to realize the importance of business planning. First, engaging in business planning in early start-up stage is a very valuable activity, because business planning can help new ventures reduce the loss caused by trial and error learning. Second, engaging in business planning is more likely to ensure high innovative products quickly be accepted by the market. Because in the process of new venture emergence, the legitimacy signal to stakeholders can be transmitted and new products can be promoted to get support and recognition from stakeholder through the business plan.

This paper focuses on the early stage of new venture life cycle and the contextual factors to explore the influence of business planning on the new venture emergence under the logic of legitimacy. This paper could enrich business planning research from the perspective of legitimacy theory by inspiring scholars to focus on the differences between new ventures and mature enterprises and to offer proposals of legitimation strategies suitable for new ventures. Meanwhile, this study contributes to the understanding of the contextual factors of business planning. And it discusses the impact of the attribute in business planning on the new venture emergence, which helps scholars to get a deep thought about the value of business planning in entrepreneurial process.