Per Ingvar Olsen

COGNITIVE MODEL OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND ITS REFLECTION IN EDUCATION

This paper employs a novel method for assessing the appropriateness of different types of entrepreneurial education. With the help of cognitive mapping as a research tool, it visualizes entrepreneurship as a skill-and-attitude-demanding activity and compares a generated model of required entrepreneurship capabilities derived from cognitive mapping of engaged entrepreneurs, with mapping of three Scandinavian graduate programmes in entrepreneurship; at BI Norwegian Business School, University of Oslo and Lund University. The cognitive maps are discussed and compared, focusing on elements that are under- or over-represented in the programmes when compared to our model. Based on our findings, a number of recommendations to people involved in creating and managing entrepreneurship programs are proposed: More attention to selection of students with appropriate attitudes, increased attention to certain under-represented topics (employee management, social networks, marketing and sales skills), more application of experiential and networking approaches, and increased focus on self-learning.

The roles of deals and business networks in innovation processes

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the roles of deals in innovations processes, based on the definition of a deal as the interaction of social-material value-creating processes with money-handing processes. Design/methodology/approach The paper is based on a study of the historical emergence of transaortic valve implantation (TAVI) as an innovative new technology in the area of thoracic surgery in a global setting. The study is based on a combination of interviews and secondary data analysis. Findings The authors found that deals play important roles in innovation processes as critical junctions that mark entries to different phases and generate major shifts in location as well as combination of resources, activities and actors. These shifts include radical changes in control, where actors in possession of resources necessary to bring the project through the next phase, move in to take control – thereby expanding their businesses to new growth niches. Based on the analysis of seven deals, the authors argue that the innovation process is a combined push and pull process where later stage entrepreneurial interests play very significant roles. Deals may also represent radical turning points and moves of the projects that set the project off in a different direction, usually also associated with shifting ownership control rights through the innovation and scaling process. The authors also argue that inventions in the periphery will tend to move to the areas with the most competent relevant business networks capable of adopting and expanding the innovation to a global business operation. The innovation process is not primarily about creating new resources and activities, but about recombining existing resources, competencies and activities. Supplier networks play particularly important roles in these processes. Research limitations/implications The authors suggest that the study indicates that IMP researchers should turn more attention to studying business deals and financial flows and influences – in particular in studies of innovations and innovation processes – to investigate the mechanisms by which new innovations interact with and transform existing business networks. Social implications This work highlights why and how an innovation that may initiate anywhere in the periphery, will tend to move to the most competent and capable networks around the globe, that are the most relevant to the needs of the innovation project. Hence, the more powerful business networks and eco-systems will tend to pull interesting inventions in from their periphery, and grow them effectively. Originality/value The paper expands the efforts in IMP theorizing to include financial/monetary interactions more explicitly into business network theory. It also aims at clarifying core IMP arguments toward entrepreneurship research, in particular research on international new ventures.

The Role of Controversy in Medical Technology Adoption

In Chapter 11, Mikhailova and Olsen present a study of a radical innovation in heart surgery and its adoption and implementation at a university hospital. The authors explore the complex inter- and intra-organizational adjustment processes of technology and practice integration by focusing on controversies at the frontiers of interaction and their effects on the adjustments and outcomes of the process. The case concerns the introduction of Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI) implementation in a Scandinavian hospital and shows that interdisciplinary frictions between cardiologists and thorax surgeons had a substantial impact on the innovation process. The authors argue that interactions between suppliers, their networks and users were critical to the particular paths of implementation and assimilation that bring radically new technologies into sustainable medical procedures.

How global medical innovation processes evolve: The case of Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation

This paper is concerned with how global medical innovation processes evolve. Multi-party networks and advanced innovation systems increasingly dominate medical-technological innovations, and our research indicates that such innovation processes have become more rapid, coordinated and powerful. Theoretically we draw upon studies of the evolution of medical innovations and practices, and of global innovation systems. Since the role of the Venture Capital Industry receives scant attention in this literature, our paper also reviews research on syndicated investments based on standardized investment and management control models shared across the Venture Capital industry. This enables us to ask the following research questions: How has the Venture Capital Industry contributed to make medical innovation processes faster and more effectively managed? What implications may this have for our general theories of innovation processes? Empirically we have studied how the innovation processes of the two main technolog...

Boundaries of Business Actors and Networks: Theoretical and Methodological Reflections

Abstract Boundary setting is identified as an important and highly useful factor, both in management practice and in dealing with phenomena in management research. It has significant implications for how circumstances and phenomena will be analysed and interpreted. Change – moving or change in nature – is a key factor in all attempts to strategise and economise. The authors argue that boundary setting is critical in analysing and interpreting business problems, both in the practice of management and in business research. The nature and function of boundaries vary. It can be exemplified with two archetypes of organisation – the integrated hierarchy and the connected company. In the first, the basic principle for boundary setting is buffering to protect the company from external variations. In the second type, it is bridging – connecting the company with specific changing factors. One important consequence is that when analysing and handling boundaries, both location and permeability become the central aspects to consider.