Sougata Ray

Networking and New Venture Resource Strategies

While the network theory and the resource-based view of the firm has emerged as a dominant paradigm of management research, entrepreneurship researchers continue to show limited interest in studying resource strategies and the role of network in building dynamic capabilities in entrepreneurial start-ups. Scant discussion is available in extant literature on the dynamics of new venture resource strategy to explain how entrepreneurs continuously augment, manage and develop resources to match the shifting product-market strategy and use networks in doing so on a sustainable basis. This article, based on an analysis of two Information Technology (IT) start-ups, explores the innovative and dynamic resource and networking strategies such firms follow. An attempt has been made to conceptualise and explain how these firms maintain flexibility in resources by using the network mode of organisation in order to avoid strategic rigidity and craft strategies that are suited to the high velocity environment. Several propositions have been developed and practical implications have been drawn in this regard.

Corporate Entrepreneurship: How?

Most organizations find that their ability to identify and innovatively exploit opportunities decreases as they move from the entrepreneurial to the growth phase. However, the key to success in the highly competitive and dynamic environment that most companies presently operate in is to retain this ability. Therefore, companies need to adopt an entrepreneurial strategy — seeking competitive advantage through continuous innovation to effectively exploit identified opportunities — in order to sustain and grow under such circumstances. For such a strategy to succeed, companies should develop an enabling economic and political ecosystem that does not impede small or large scale redeployment of resources in new ways towards creative, entrepreneurial ends. Companies have a range of options to choose from to achieve this objective. At the one end of this option spectrum is ‘focused entrepreneurship’ wherein specific innovation initiatives are created with the rest of the organization insulated from them. At the other end is a managerial approach that leads to the creation of ‘organizationwide entrepreneurship.’ Entrepreneurship in such organizations is a shared value and drives managerial behaviour in conscious and subconscious ways and creates an entrepreneurial spirit organization-wide. Many mature organizations, unwilling to alter the status quo, tend to create focused initiatives that are mandated to identify and exploit new opportunities. While such focused initiatives may stimulate innovation, the very nature of their design erects barriers between the existing organization and the innovation effort. This makes it difficult for the organizations to access and leverage the existing capability base and to integrate new initiatives back into operational activity. Companies intent on developing and preserving entrepreneurship organization-wide, independent of their stage of growth, create an environment in which those who believe in the attractiveness of opportunities feel encouraged to pursue them. The top managements of such companies will design an organizational context conducive to autonomous generation of entrepreneurial initiatives, provide a sense of overall direction to these initiatives, and ensure that promising ventures receive necessary resources as they move through the uncertain development process wherein: money is neither offered nor seen as a primary motivator entrepreneurial contributions are rewarded with recognition and through provision of opportunities to engage in entrepreneurial activities on a bigger scale failure is considered normal and when failure occurs, the focus is on problem solving and learning from it rather than apportioning blame appropriate processes are used to capture knowledge created in the innovation process and routines developed to enable integration of such knowledge to create organizational rents. The contrast between patterns of focused and organization-wide entrepreneurship runs across every element of the organization starting with its mission and covering strategy, structure, systems, processes, and people skills and attitude. Institutionalizing the elements of entrepreneurship is crucial to building a sustaining competitive organization in todays business environment.

Towards a Framework for a Comprehensive Theory of Entrepreneurship

In the last few decades researchers with diverse disciplinary backgrounds have addressed the phenomenon of entrepreneurship, leading to the emer gence of multiple and seemingly unrelated theories. Apparently, no unify ing framework exists in the literature that can bring these diverse theories together and, thus, provide a comprehensive view of entrepreneurship. An attempt has been made in this paper to present a conceptual framework, underlining the interrelationships among various elements involved in entrepreneurship. The framework, the authors claim, can help develop a comprehensive theory.

Optimal exploration and exploitation: the managerial intentionality perspective

Extant research has provided ambiguous answers to the question as to what constitutes an ideal balance between exploration and exploitation, in stable and turbulent environments. Much of the literature emphasizes controlling organizational actions by means of predictions based on historical knowledge. In our study, we investigate organizational outcomes when such predictions are not possible and managers intentionally focus their firm on either exploratory or exploitative innovation. Using March’s iconic computational simulation model, we find that multiple exploration–exploitation combinations lead to equivalent, maximum organizational knowledge, establishing a rational basis for managerial intentionality toward exploratory or exploitative innovation. We further find that onset of environmental turbulence impacts an organization focusing on exploratory innovation in a way that is different from the way an organization focusing on exploitative innovation is impacted. The former is enabled to carry out an increasing level of its core activity, exploration. The latter is required to dial down its core activity, exploitation. Our findings suggest a resolution to conflicting prescriptions regarding appropriate response to onset of environmental turbulence endemic in the literature.

The role of government in the formation of late emerging entrepreneurial clusters of india

Developing countries, eager to catch up on industrialization, have identified industries based on information technology (IT) as a major growth driver. It is in this context that the recent interest in industrial clusters as a means to accelerate regional development, particularly after the boom in the IT industry in Silicon Valley, has to be viewed (Sturgeon, 2003). At the same time, efforts by several states and countries to recreate Silicon Valleys have had mixed results. Why does it happen so? Are such clusters human made? Is their growth a natural phenomenon or can it be catalyzed? If so, how and how much? Knowledge drawn from manufacturing industries or other service industries provides only partial answers. This is true in the Indian context as well. Unfortunately, though many scholars have tried to explain why India could emerge as an IT superpower, little has been said on how and why successful IT clusters have been formed in some cities such as Hyderabad and what needs to be done to sustain and replicate the success. This chapter attempts to provide some initial explanation to this complex process. While most studies on clusters reveal the history and factors that assisted the formation of clusters, a key challenge, often not discussed is whether it is possible to compress the time normally and naturally taken to form clusters and, if so, how. This insight is particularly important now since time has become a critical success factor for both...

An exploratory study on the impact of pro-market reforms on the Indian corporate sector

Pro-market reforms were expected to increase competition, improve efficiency and reduce agency costs by improving the institutional environment in emerging markets. In an attempt to establish the macro–micro linkages of these goals, this paper aims to analyse the impact of reforms on the performance of firms belonging to different ownership categories. We find that while state owned enterprises have shown signs of convergence, the performance of other domestic firms has stagnated. Meanwhile multinational subsidiaries have shown consistently better performance, raising questions on the motive and direction of reforms. We end by discussing the policy implications and avenues for future research.

Evolutionary Dynamics of Organizational Legitimacy of a Social Enterprise in a Developing Economy

Several scholars have emphasized the critical relevance of organizational legitimacy in the context of social entrepreneurship and social enterprise. However, the extant literature has given scant attention to understand the temporal and evolutionary dynamics of legitimization process in a social enterprise at different stages of its life cycle. In this article, using interpretive methods, we present our observations and conceptualization of the approaches, mechanisms, and processes adopted by the Child In Need Institute (CINI)—a 38 year old established Indian social enterprise to gain and nurture legitimacy from its stakeholders. We explain how CINI has adopted different mechanisms and legitimization processes at various stages of the life cycle. It is evident that the micro-level interactive legitimization processes adopted by different organizational actors at various points in time have led to the evolution of the mission and the strategic direction of CINI over the years.

DO BUSINESS GROUPS ENABLE OR CONSTRAIN THE STRATEGIC TRANSFORMATION OF AFFILIATED FIRMS

The article presents a discussion of the costs and benefits of affiliation of business firms to business groups (BGs). Research examining the role of BGs on the internationalization of affiliate fi...