Patricia Doyle Corner

How Opportunities Develop in Social Entrepreneurship

The purpose of this article was to extend existing research on opportunity identification in the social entrepreneurship literature through empirically examining this phenomenon. We used an inductive, theory–building design that surfaced patterns in social value creation across multiple case studies. The patterns showed actors seeing a social need and prospecting ideas that could address it. Data also revealed multiple, not individual, actors, dynamically engaged in interactions that nudged an opportunity into manifestation. Also, data suggested complementarities to effectuation and rational/economic processes that are divergent theoretical approaches to the study of entrepreneurship to date.

Dynamic capability emergence in the venture creation process

This article explores dynamic capability formation in new ventures examining technology commercialization at the microlevel of entrepreneurs’ actions and decisions. The research reflects a longitudinal, qualitative, multi-case study design to build theory. Findings reveal two interdependent micro-level patterns that reflect dynamic entrepreneurial capabilities. First, prospecting problems or the capacity to identify problems in industrial settings that a commercially untried technology might solve. Second, openly sharing technological features with prospective customers in order to jointly design prototype products. Revealing technology helped ensure new venture survival in contrast with conventional wisdom that links firm survival to the insulation and protection of technology. Moreover, micro-level patterns shaped macro-level change in venture/customer dyads and in related customer’ industries.

Grounded learning from a strategy case competition

This article describes a case competition that reflects the four elements of a grounded learning exercise. These elements include creating a real-world experience, optimizing learning transfer, integrating theory and practice, and shifting learning responsibility to the students. The authors also provide details on implementing this exercise in an undergraduate capstone strategy course and using a real-time case that brings the competition to life.

Spiritual organizations and connectedness: the Living Nature experience

Definitions of spiritual organization include the notion of connectedness but generally consider only connectedness with respect to employees. We extend the notion of connectedness and thereby the definition of what constitutes spiritual organizations by systematically considering other ways in which organizations can enact connectedness. Classic open systems theory is integrated with the organizational spirituality literature to build a framework that identifies multiple paths to connectedness for a spiritual organization. A case study was chosen for its unusual and distinctive ability to illustrate this framework and reveals connectedness as it relates to functions connectedness (through international suppliers, accreditation, research and development, marketing and education), and to eco‐systems connectedness, where the organization demonstrates explicit awareness of social and environmental connectedness. We suggest that together these different forms of connectedness illustrate an awareness of an interdependent connectedness at a deep ecological level.

Do similarities or differences between CEO leadership and organizational culture have a more positive effect on firm performance? A test of competing predictions.

This study examines the nature of the interaction between CEO leadership and organizational culture using 2 common metathemes (task and relationship) in leadership and culture research. Two perspectives, similarity and dissimilarity, offer competing predictions about the fit, or interaction, between leadership and culture and its predicted effect on firm performance. Predictions for the similarity perspective draw upon attribution theory and social identity theory of leadership, whereas predictions for the dissimilarity perspective are developed based upon insights from leadership contingency theories and the notion of substitutability. Hierarchical regression results from 114 CEOs and 324 top management team (TMT) members failed to support the similarity hypotheses but revealed broad support for the dissimilarity predictions. Findings suggest that culture can serve as a substitute for leadership when leadership behaviors are redundant with cultural values (i.e., they both share a task- or relationship-oriented focus). Findings also support leadership contingency theories indicating that CEO leadership is effective when it provides psychological and motivational resources lacking in the organizations culture. We discuss theoretical and practical implications and delineate directions for future research. (PsycINFO Database Record

Entrepreneurship Research: Follow the Yellow-Brick Road?

tice represent Oz at the culmination of the yellow-brick road, Dorothy and her companions have much company on their journey. For example, one source estimates that 460 million people worldwide either start a new business or become the owners of new businesses annually (Reynolds et al. 2002). Moreover, entrepreneurship is the fastest growing field of study in tertiary education in North America and Europe (Bygrave 2004) and fifteen specialized scholarly journals disseminate research on the topic globally. Within the policy-making arena, the governments of both Australia and New Zealand seek to promote entrepreneurship as an engine of economic growth. This special issue on entrepreneurship thus appears to be timely and can help to take stock of this topic within our Australasian context. It can also serve as a baseline from which to consider directions for future research in this important area of inquiry. Historically, research on entrepreneurship has been informed by multiple disciplines. The influence of economics is seen through the ideas of Schumpeter (1976) and Kirzner (1997) especially. For example, Schumpeter’s notion of creative destruction described how existing product markets are destroyed by entrepreneurs who create new markets from information asymmetries or other market disequilibria. Contributions from psychology have focused on explaining entrepreneurship as a function of core human characteristics including tolerance for ambiguity (Schere 1982) and need for achievement (McCelland 1961). The discipline of sociology identified properties of the broader external environment that appear to influence the likelihood of entrepreneurial activity occurring. These include competence-destroying technological change (Tushman & Anderson 1986), industry dynamics (Hannan & Freeman 1987), and market structures (Acs & Audretsch 1990). Management research has drawn on these interdisciplinary findings to inform its scholarship on the phenomenon of entrepreneurship. Despite several classic contributions, entrepreneurship research is still seen as being in its early stages of development. This ‘early stage’ view is expressed in articles describing the ‘distinctive domain of entrepreneurship research’ (Venkataraman 1997) and the ‘promise of entrepreneurship as a field of research (Shane & Venkataraman 2000). Despite its newness, however; a conceptual framework for this important field of inquiry is emerging within the management discipline. The framework holds that entrepreneurship research: 1) evaluates people who discover, assess, and exploit opportunities; 2) investigates methCopyright

Social, Environmental and Sustainable Entrepreneurship Research What Is Needed for Sustainability-as-Flourishing?

What process of socioeconomic transformation might move humanity towards sustainability-as-flourishing, an ideal view of sustainability where life flourishes indefinitely on Earth? We suggest entrepreneurship as one such process and review the literature on three types of entrepreneurship said to transform society by creating value beyond profit: social, environmental and sustainable entrepreneurship. From environmental and social scientific literature, we distil a set of requisites for sustainability-as-flourishing, a topic of growing interest. We then review the literature on social, environmental and sustainable entrepreneurship relative to these requisites. Findings show contributions and also limitations towards sustainability-as-flourishing reflected in research on each type of entrepreneurship. We propose a research agenda to address the most glaring limitations including a failure to study critical reflection processes that can shape entrepreneurs’ actions and a lack of emphasis on the Earth’s physical carrying capacity. Future research could also zero in more on complex systems thinking and consider root causes.

AN UPPER ECHELONS EXPLANATION OF ACQUISITION OUTCOMES

The article applies upper echelon theory to explain variation in parent firms’ post-acquisition financial performance. We develop and test a latent variable model hypothesizing that top management team (TMT) demographic diversity affects financial outcomes through teams’ collective beliefs. In so doing we identify three constructs which potentially underlie classic TMT demographic diversity measures. Also, we propose two fundamental structural properties of team beliefs extrapolated from individual level cognitive complexity theory. Results show both positive and negative effects on financial outcomes from the TMT demographic diversity constructs through the belief constructs. We discuss the importance of including mediating constructs when attempting to unravel TMT diversity’s effects on firm level outcomes.

Entrepreneurial resilience and venture failure

This article explores the emotional and psychological functioning of entrepreneurs after venture failure. Accordingly, it investigates the extent to which entrepreneurs exhibit resilience, defined by psychologists as stability in functioning over time, despite experiencing a traumatic event. Entrepreneurial resilience is rarely investigated in the context of failure despite it being a debilitating experience. Our exploration is critical to venture creation as resilience plays a key role in re-entry into entrepreneurship. A qualitative, narrative research design reveals how 11 entrepreneurs functioned after failure. The majority of entrepreneurs show resilience; that is, they exhibit stable levels of functioning. This stability is different from the disruptions in functioning that psychologists label as ‘recovery’ from a severe event. Our findings, therefore, challenge the assumption that recovery is required after venture failure. Implications for re-entry into entrepreneurship and learning from, and coping with, failure are explored.

Leadership in new ventures: complexity managed by teams

The purpose of this paper was to investigate the extent to which leadership in new venture entrepreneurial teams was consistent with a complex systems framework. A case study design was used and qualitative evidence was collected and analysed relative to the three complexity leadership roles outlined by Uhl-Bien et al. (2007). These roles were administrative, adaptive and enabling leadership. The adaptive leadership role was most strongly reflected in the case studies, although the evidence did reveal a mix of the three roles described by Uhl-Bien et al. Examples of adaptive leadership include the development of prototype products, the creation of revenue streams from new products, entry into overseas markets, and the sale of an innovative product to the dominant firm in the industry. The collected qualitative evidence was highly consistent with the conceptual framework of Complex Adaptive Systems (CASs) particularly because new venture teams defied categorisation into the precise categories and units of analysis commonly assumed in the literature. This consistency encourages the application of complexity and chaos notions to future research on new ventures, even though the current findings are most appropriately interpreted as exploratory.