1,721,037 research outputs found
The entrepreneurial ecosystem: A global perspective (edited by Zoltan J. Acs, Esteban Lafuente and László Szerb, Cham, Palgrave Macmillan, 2023. xlii + 381 pp., £129.99 (hbk), ISBN 978-3-031-25930-2, n.p.g. (pbk), ISBN 978-3-031-25933-3, £103.50 (ebk), ISBN 978-3-031-25931-9. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-25931-9
Full text linkBuilding more entrepreneurial organizations through external innovation contests
Full text linkFirms are increasingly adopting innovation contests to obtain ideas for new
products and services from external parties, but many firms may not be suffi-
ciently entrepreneurial to benefit from those ideas. Using an inductive longitu-
dinal case study of three financial service firms, we explore the value of
external innovation contests for less entrepreneurial and stagnant firms. Our
findings indicate that stagnant firms indeed struggle to benefit from ideas gen-
erated through external innovation contests. However, we also show that firms
undergo a structural change process toward higher entrepreneurial orientation
through such contests. In particular, they become aware of an organizational
readiness gap and act on it by (i) developing entrepreneurial skills,
(ii) collaborating with external partners, and (iii) adapting organizational
design and governance. Based on our findings, we propose an original frame-
work for a corporate entrepreneurial learning process triggered by the innova-
tion contest experienc
Digital Skills Mobilization within Incumbent Organizations: The Agentic Role of Digital Champions
Full text linkIn a world increasingly influenced by digital technologies, incumbent organizations are urged to equip
their employees with digital skills to unlock the transformative power of digitalization for their strategy
and business model. Yet, extant research lacks guidance on how to mobilize and implement effective
initiatives to develop digital skills in incumbents. Therefore, through an in-depth case study of a
utility company, this paper explores how an incumbent can mobilize its digital skills to embrace digital
transformation. Based on the process perspective of resource mobilization, we shed light on the mechanisms
for searching, accessing and transferring digital skills, namely: (i) unearthing dormant digital
skills; (ii) awakening digital skill-holders; and (iii) disseminating digital skills. In the investigation of
these mechanisms, we uncover the agentic role of digital champions, who become an organizational
capability for mobilizing digital skills in incumbents. We also document how digital technologies, as
operant resources, can transversally support all stages of the mobilization of digital skills aimed at
developing and leveraging digital skills in incumbents. In doing so, we explore the role of digitalization,
both as the content of resource mobilization, in terms of digital skills, and as the means through
which mobilization is enacted, in terms of digital assets and initiatives. Based on the findings of this
study, we contribute to knowledge at the interface between digitalization and resource mobilization in the broader context of digital transformation
Experimental approaches to entrepreneurship and the scientific method: A critical review and comparison
No full text
Operationalizing Business Model Innovation for New Ventures through the Lean principles: a proposal for an integrated “SMED for BMI” framework
No full textBusiness Model Innovation (BMI) is a process new ventures are frequently
involved in, specifically in dynamic environments like the digital one: copying
with the “transitory phase” from one Business Model (BM) to another is hence a
key issue for entrepreneurs attempting to shorten the transition and avoid losses
in terms of revenue, image and customer retention.
However, the extant literature and practice shows fragmentation in the
methodologies to execute BMI. This study aims at extending the use of Lean
principles to operationalize BMI. By considering analogies between the
operational and strategic levels, and performing a multiple case study on digital
new ventures, the study proposes to revisit the SMED model and integrate it
with additional Lean principles to develop an original “SMED for BMI”
framework. The framework extends the traditional Lean Startup Approach and
may support in every process of BMI, not simply its initial pivotal in early
startup stages
Business Model Scaling through Experimentation: Growth Hacking in Digital Startups
No full textAn ever-growing number of startups is born every year, introducing innovative business models in new and established industries. However, only a limited number of them is able to scale and establish itself as a valid player in the market despite facing the resource constraints that are typical of startups, for which scaling translate into a significantly growth of their user base thanks to the scalability possibilities enabled by digital infrastructures. This phenomenon has called for novel approaches to grow in a sustainable way, while at the same time dealing with the strong resource constraints new ventures face. Several articles have analyzed the use of experimental approaches for startups to design and validate their business model despite their limited resource availability. Extant literature in business model innovation currently fails to investigate the methods and systems startups deploy when transitioning from their innovative and validated business model to a scalable one. However, practitioner literature has underlined the presence of a novel approach going under the name of “Growth Hacking” – to progress beyond a validated business model through continuous testing and experimentation. The aim of this study is to understand the way startups scale their business model, with particular focus on the approach they deploy to do so. This study leverages an exploratory multiple-case study on three Italian fintech startups which have been undergoing business model scaling leveraging Growth Hacking. The findings from the case study have then been supplemented by a series of interviews with a panel of experts in Growth Hacking, aimed at validating the interpretation of the findings. Our findings hint that, once reached a validated business model, startups adopt an experimental approach to business model scaling. In particular, startups use Growth Hacking to experiment in the way they acquire, activate, retain, and monetize customers. Consistently with extant theory, hypothesis building, iteration, and testing constitute the fundamental principles to conduct experiments aimed at growing and engaging the customer base. Furthermore, our findings illustrate the importance of specialization in the experimentation process for business model scaling, where marketing departments are those to carry out the experiments and serve an infrastructural role in gathering data from other departments, designing the experiments and translating their insights into actionable adjustments. This study provides insights for both theory and practice, building theory on the neglected phenomenon of business model scaling and Growth Hacking, while providing managers with guidelines to set up specialized marketing teams who can serve as the owners of the experimentation process for business model scaling
Employees’ entrepreneurial orientation in response to exogenous crises: the contingent role of entrepreneurial exposure
Full text linkEmployees’ entrepreneurial orientation represents a powerful bottom–up force for building
organizations that are more resilient to exogenous crises. However, limited empirical
knowledge exists regarding how exogenous crises may affect employees’ entrepreneurial
orientation in the first place. To address this gap, we draw on threat-rigidity theory and
exploit the COVID-19 pandemic as a valuable test bed. Using a survey administered to
employees of a system integrator firm pre- and post-COVID-19, we find that the crisis negatively
impacted employees’ entrepreneurial orientation. However, entrepreneurial exposure
mitigates this effect, ultimately enhancing employees’ entrepreneurial orientation in
response to exogenous crises. Our findings deepen the understanding of employees’ entrepreneurial
orientation dynamics and the role of entrepreneurial exposure in established
firms
Agile Business Model Innovation in Digital Entrepreneurship: Lean Startup Approaches
Full text linkDigital startups in the early stages of their development frequently undergo innovation to their value ar-chitecture and Business Model. A set of pragmatic methods drawing on lean and agile principles has recentlybeen proposed to support digital entrepreneurs facing Business Model Innovation (BMI), known as Lean StartupApproaches (LSAs). However, the theoretical and practical relationship between BMI and LSAs in dynamic di-gital environments has seldom been investigated. Tofill this gap, our study draws on an exploratory multiple-case study based on three digital multisided platform startups to craft a unified framework that can disclose therelationship between BMI, LSAs and Agile Development (AD), within the context of Strategic Agility. Ourfin-dings, which emerge from the unified framework, show that LSAs can be employed as agile methods to enableBusiness Model Innovation in Digital Entrepreneurship. Thesefindings are then organized around a set ofpropositions, with the aim of developing a research agenda directed towards integrating BMI, LSAs and ADprocesses and method
- …
