Vincent Lefebvre

Formal entrepreneurial networks as communities of practice: a longitudinal case study

This article argues that entrepreneurial learning is genuinely connected to entrepreneurial networking activities, within a co-evolving dynamics. We take a longitudinal network approach to study the combined development of network dynamics and learning in a French formal entrepreneurial network over a period of 4 years (2005–2009). Our aim is to extend our knowledge of entrepreneurial learning emphasized both as a process and an outcome of social interaction, by focusing on the interplay between network evolution and the changing learning needs of participants over time. Building on a situated social perspective of entrepreneurial learning, we demonstrate that network learning processes and outcomes are contingent on the progressive network transformation from a social network to a community of practice.

Integrating Corporate Social Responsibility at the Start-up Level: Constraint or Catalyst for Opportunity Identification?

This conceptual paper examines the issue of integrating CSR at the start-up level with the aim of increasing the firm’s ability to identify new opportunities. Both a constraint and an occasion to strengthen the company’s legitimacy and competitive advantage, CSR principles and practices are a key vehicle for opportunity identification and implementation. Historically, SMEs have contributed significantly to the improvement of existing products and services, and the creation of new ones. Grounding CSR in the strategy of enterprises at the start-up level is increasingly examined as an effective management tool with multiple benefits for opportunity identification. CSR may be promoted as a means of nurturing creativity and innovation at the start-up level and beyond, through pushing entrepreneurs to imagine new business models, to discover new raw materials, as well as to create new products and services so as to respond to both economic and social expectations.