Diamanto Politis

The Process of Entrepreneurial Learning: A Conceptual Framework

The present article seeks to advance the theoretical knowledge of entrepreneurial learning by reviewing and synthesizing available research into a conceptual framework that explains the process of entrepreneurial learning as an experiential process. The framework identifies three main components in the process of entrepreneurial learning: entrepreneurs’ career experience, the transformation process, and entrepreneurial knowledge in terms of effectiveness in recognizing and acting on entrepreneurial opportunities and coping with the liabilities of newness. Based on the arguments in the article, five major propositions were developed to refine our understanding of entrepreneurial learning. Finally, theoretical and practical implications were discussed.

Does prior start-up experience matter for entrepreneurs’ learning? : A comparison between novice and habitual entrepreneurs

This paper aims to present a study of the role of prior start-up experience as a source of learning in the entrepreneurial process. Three learning outcomes are examined with respect to a compariso ...

Business angels and value added: what do we know and where do we go?

Business angels have been highlighted as important stakeholders for potential high-growth ventures. Extant empirical research provides evidence that they not only contribute with money but also bring added value to the ventures in which they have invested. However, despite the reported benefits of the value added provided by these investors there are very few studies that try to conceptualize this important issue. The present study seeks to meet this shortcoming by presenting a review of literature and research on business angels and value added. The overall objective is to recognize the range of value added activities that business angels have been reported to perform, aggregate the findings into a set of distinct but complementary value adding roles, and then link these roles to theoretical perspectives that explain why they have the potential to contribute to added value. Four different value added roles performed by informal investors are presented together with an explanation of how they can be seen as complementary to each other. The following discussion is then used to guide future studies of business angels and value added towards areas where our knowledge is still limited.

Exploring the resource logic of student entrepreneurs

This study responds to the call in recent research for comparative studies examining whether student entrepreneurs are different to other kinds of entrepreneurs. Based on institutional theory, the specific question we ask in this study is whether student entrepreneurs who start up their firms in close relation to the university have a different resource logic compared to entrepreneurs who start their firms outside the university context. We define resource logic as the individual’s set of ideas for how to secure and use resources, and we link this concept to theories of effectual reasoning and bootstrapping to develop our argument. Moreover, we identify two different viewpoints about the effects of the university milieu on the resource logic of student entrepreneurs and we develop hypotheses to test the different viewpoints. The findings give overall support for the view that student entrepreneurs have developed a resource logic that favours both effectual reasoning and the use of bootstrapping methods.

Early-stage finance and the role of external entrepreneurs in the commercialization of university-generated knowledge

The past decade has seen a plethora of policy initiatives that seek to bridge the chasm between investments in public R&D and its effective diffusion in society. This article uses a case study approach to explore and contrast the effectiveness of different entrepreneur models in financing and developing university spin-offs (USOs). The distinction between different entrepreneur models is based on whether the USOs are championed by university employees that seek to commercialize their own inventions or by external entrepreneurs who are not the original inventors but with acquired rights to develop and commercialize technology originating from university research. Our analysis show that external entrepreneurs have a different mind-set that makes them better equipped to deal with opportunities and obstacles related to financing and developing USOs. However, the development paths of USOs are embedded in a more complex web of path-dependent interactions, where the championship of the USO becomes interwoven with existing and emerging social relationships and opportunities, and challenges related to the technology that is commercialized.

Business Simulation Exercises in Small Business Management Education: Using Principles and Ideas from Action Learning.

Recent calls to close the rigour-relevance gap in business school education have suggested incorporating principles and ideas from action learning in small business management education. In this paper we discuss how business simulation exercises can be used as a platform to trigger students’ learning by providing them with a platform where they can merge theory with practice. We provide theoretical arguments accompanied by illustrations to show how such initiatives can create a more student-centred teaching structure than what is usually practised in contemporary business school education. This may in turn work as a potential bridge between the safe harbour of traditional classroom teaching and the more chaotic and complex world of managerial practice.

Women business ventures in Swedish university incubators

Purpose – Despite a growing interest in both women and university academic entrepreneurship, there are very few studies addressing womens academic entrepreneurship. The authors address this gap by focusing on university incubators for womens academic entrepreneurship. The purpose of this paper is to examine and analyze the significance of university incubators for the promotion and development of womens academic business start‐ups.Design/methodology/approach – The authors use a unique Swedish database for multivariate statistical tests on the performance of groups of women‐ and men‐led ventures, as well as on groups of women incubatees. The database includes data for over 1,400 ventures, out of which 210 ventures are by women entrepreneurs.Findings – About 15 percent of the ventures in the incubators are started and managed by women entrepreneurs. Several significant differences were found between the groups, but the overall conclusion is that the Swedish incubators in this study do not show any eviden...

Sustainable high-growth entrepreneurship: A study of rapidly growing firms in the Scania region

The importance of high-growth entrepreneurship is widely acknowledged. Previous studies, however, have shown that only a few rapidly growing firms manage to sustain their growth trajectory over long periods. This paper addresses high-growth entrepreneurship in the Scania region of Sweden. The authors analyse a sample of high-growth firms and find that only a minority exhibit sustained high growth. They also compare sustainable high-growth firms with temporary high-growth firms, using unique data about their innovation and R&D activities. The analysis shows that sustainable high-growth firms are more often involved in activities aimed at developing and improving existing production processes, and are also less committed to international operations in new foreign markets. The results can be used to advise policy makers on how to understand and support high-growth entrepreneurship in regional innovation systems.

Entrepreneurial learning and innovation : The critical role of team-level learning for the evolution of innovation capabilities in technology-based ventures

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual model that explains how learning processes at the team level connect with individual and organizational levels of learning in technology-based ventures, thereby influencing the evolution of innovation capabilities in the entrepreneurial process. Design/methodology/approach The 4I organizational learning framework is used as an overarching theoretical structure to acknowledge entrepreneurial learning as a dynamic process that operate on multiple levels in technology-based ventures. Embedded in this logic, research on team learning is integrated into this theorizing to examine how learning processes at the team level bridge and connect with learning processes operating at individual and organizational levels. Findings The conceptual model identifies different sets of team learning processes critical for the routinization and evolution of innovation capabilities in technology-based ventures. In this respect, the conceptual model advances the scholarly understanding of entrepreneurial learning as a dynamic process operating across multiple levels in technology-based ventures. Originality/value By conceptualizing how individual streams of experiences over time become institutionalized via interaction, conversation and dialogue, the paper provides novel insights into the critical role of team learning for bridging individual and organizational levels of learning in the entrepreneurial learning process.

Role and impact of the environment on entrepreneurial learning

Abstract This article is presenting an overview of the literature devoted to entrepreneurial learning and, more specifically, those research bringing environmental elements into the study of the entrepreneurial learning process. Then, it shows how each of the four Special Issue selected research papers contribute to enhancing our knowledge of the complexity of the learning process vis-à-vis entrepreneurial processes placed in context. By doing this, it makes an attempt to explain the specific context behind each contribution as well as presenting the wider context. Finally, the article is suggesting a set of key challenges and research pathways that might be explored in the future.