Top

International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal

Published in:

01-03-2008

Sustaining entrepreneurial business: A complexity perspective on processes that produce emergent practice

Authors: Ted Fuller, Lorraine Warren, Paul Argyle

Published in: International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal | Issue 1/2008

Activate our intelligent search to find suitable subject content or patents.

search-config

AI-assisted search

Off

Abstract

This article examines the management practices in an entrepreneurial small firm which sustain the business. Using a longitudinal qualitative case study, four general processes are identified (experimentation, reflexivity, organising and sensing), that together provide a mechanism to sustain the enterprise. The analysis draws on concepts from entrepreneurship and complexity science. We suggest that an entrepreneur’s awareness of the role of these parallel processes will facilitate their approaches to sustaining and developing enterprises. We also suggest that these processes operate in parallel at multiple levels, including the self, the business and inter-firm networks. This finding contributes to a general theory of entrepreneurship. A number of areas for further research are discussed arising from this result.

next article Recall of autobiographical memory: A longitudinal analysis of franchisee experts

Dont have a licence yet? Then find out more about our products and how to get one now:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 102.000 Bücher
über 537 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Automobil + Motoren
Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 67.000 Bücher
über 340 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Aldrich, H. E., & Martinez, M. A. (2001). Many are called, but few are chosen: An evolutionary perspective for the study of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, 25(4), 41–57.

Argyle, P. (2000). Through the looking glass of complexity: A single case study. Unpublished Masters thesis, Business School, University of Durham, Durham, England.

Baum, J. A. C. (2003). Entrepreneurs’ start-up cognitions and behaviors: Dreams, surprises, shortages, and fast zigzags. Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research 2003, Babson College.

Burnes, B. (2005). Complexity theories and organisational change. International Journal of Management Reviews, 7(2), 73–90.CrossRef

Busenitz, L. W., West, I., Page, G., Shepherd, D., Nelson, T., Chandler, G. N., et al. (2003). Entrepreneurship research in emergence: Past trends and future directions. Journal of Management, 29, 285–308.CrossRef

Calás, M., & Smircich, L. (1992). Rewriting gender into organizational theorizing: Directions from feminist perspectives. In M. Reed & M. Hughes (Eds.), Rethinking organization: New directions in organizational theory and analysis (pp. 227–253). London: Sage.

Carland, J. W., Hoy, F., Boulton, W. R., & Carland, J. A. C. (1984). Differentiating entrepreneurs from owner managers. Academy of Management Review, 9, 354–359.CrossRef

Christensen, C. M. (1997). The innovators dilemma: When new technologies cause great firms to fail. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

Downing, S. (2005). The social construction of entrepreneurship: Narrative and dramatic processes in the coproduction of organizations and identities. Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, 29, 185–204.CrossRef

Fischer, E., Reuber, A. R., Hababou, M., Johnson, W., & Lee, S. (1997). The role of socially constructed temporal perspectives in the emergence of rapid growth firms. Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, 22(2), 13–30.

Fleming, L., & Sorenson, O. (2001). Technology as a complex adaptive system. Research Policy, 30, 1019–1039.CrossRef

Fuller, T. (1999). Complexity metaphors and the process of small business foresighting. In M. Lissack & H. Guntz (Eds.), Managing the complex (pp. 336–351). Boston: Quorum Books.

Fuller, T., & Lewis, J. (2003). Relationships mean everything. British Journal of Management, 13, 317–336.CrossRef

Fuller, T., & Moran, P. (2000). Moving beyond metaphor: Towards a methodology for grounding complexity in small business and entrepreneurship research. Emergence: A Journal of Complexity Issues in Organizations and Management, 2, 50–71.

Fuller, T., & Moran, P. (2001). Small enterprises as complex adaptive systems: A methodological question? Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 13, 47–63.CrossRef

Garnsey, E., & Heffernan, P. (2005). High technology clustering through spinout and attraction: The Cambridge case. Regional Studies, 39, 1127–1144.CrossRef

Gartner, W. B. (1993). Words lead to deeds—Towards an organizational emergence vocabulary. Journal of Business Venturing, 8, 231–239.CrossRef

Garud, R., & Karnoe, P. (2003). Bricolage versus breakthrough: Distributed and embedded agency in technology entrepreneurship. Research Policy, 32, 277–301.CrossRef

Gibb, A. A., & Scott, M. G. (1985). Strategic awareness, personal commitment and the process of planning in the small business. Journal of Management Studies, 22, 597–625.CrossRef

Gleick, J. (1987). Chaos: Making a new science. New York: Viking.

Hamel, G., & Prahalad, C. K. (1994). Competing for the future. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

Holland, J. H. (1998). Emergence. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

Hornaday, R. W. (1990). Dropping the E-words from small business research. Journal of Small Business Management, 28(4), 22–33.

Houchin, K., & MacLean, D. (2005). Complexity theory and strategic change: An empirically informed critique. British Journal of Management, 16(2), 149–166.CrossRef

Katz, J., & Gartner, W. B. (1988). Properties of emerging organizations. Academy of Management Review, 13, 429–441.CrossRef

Lewin, A. Y., Long, C., & Carroll, T. (1999). The coevolution of new organizational forms. Organization Science, 10, 535–550.CrossRef

Lichtenstein, B. (2000a). The matrix of complexity: A multi-disciplinary approach for studying emergence in coevolution. In Arie Lewin and Henk Volberda (Eds.), Mobilizing the self-renewing organization: The co-evolution advantage. SAGE Publications, forthcoming.

Lichtenstein, B. M. B. (2000b). Emergence as a process of self-organizing—New assumptions and insights from the study of non-linear dynamic systems. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 13, 526–544.CrossRef

Lichtenstein, B. M. B. (2000c). Self-organized transitions: A pattern amid the chaos of transformative change. Academy of Management Executive, 14(4), 1–14.

Lichtenstein, B. B., Carter, N. M., Dooley, K. J., & Gartner, W. B. (2007). Complexity dynamics of nascent entrepreneurship. Journal of Business Venturing, 22, 236–261.CrossRef

Lichtenstein, B. B., Dooley, K. J., & Lumpkin, G. T. (2006). Measuring emergence in the dynamics of new venture creation. Journal of Business Venturing, 21, 153–175.CrossRef

Lichtenstein, B. M. B., & Mendenhall, M. (2002). Non-linearity and response-ability: Emergent order in 21st-century careers. Human Relations, 55, 5–32.CrossRef

Lissack, M. (1997). Of chaos and complexity: Managerial insights from a new science. Management Decision, 35(3), 205–218.CrossRef

Lounsbury, M., & Glynn, M. A. (2001). Cultural entrepreneurship: Stories, legitimacy, and the acquisition of resources. Strategic Management Journal, 22, 545–564.CrossRef

Low, M. B., & MacMillan, I. C. (1988). Entrepreneurship: Past research and future challenges. Journal of Management, 14(2), 139–161.CrossRef

Maguire, S., & Mckelvey, B. (1999). Complexity and management: Moving from fad to firm foundations. Emergence, 1(2), 19–61.CrossRef

McKelvey, B. (1982). Organizational systematics. Berkeley: University of California Press.

McKelvey, B. (1999a). Complexity theory in organization science: Seizing the promise or becoming a fad? Emergence, 1, 5–32.CrossRef

McKelvey, B. (1999b). Self-Organization, complexity catastrophe, and microstate models at the edge of chaos. In J. A. C. Baum & B. McKelvey (Eds.), Variations in organization science—In honor of Donald T. Campbell, J. A. C. Baum and Bill McKelvey (eds). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage (Chapter 15).

McKelvey, B. (2004). Towards a complexity science of entrepreneurship. Journal of Business Venturing, 19, 313–342.CrossRef

Meyer, A., Gaba, V., & Colwell, K. (2005). Organizing far from equilibrium: Nonlinear change in organizational fields. Organization Science, 16, 456–473.CrossRef

Mill, J. S. (1843). System of logic. London: Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer (8th edn., 1872).

Nicolis, G., & Prigogine, I. (1989). Exploring complexity: An introduction. New York: Freeman.

Prigogine, I., & Stengers, I. (1984). Order out of chaos: Mans new dialogue with nature. New York: Bantam.

Sarasvathy, S. D. (2001). Causation and effectuation: Toward a theoretical shift from economic inevitability to entrepreneurial contingency. Academy of Management Review, 26, 243–263.CrossRef

Schumpeter, J. A. (1934). The theory of economic development: An inquiry into profits, capital, credit, interest and the business cycle. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Snowden, D. (2002). Complex acts of knowing: Paradox and descriptive self awareness. Journal of Knowledge Management, 6(2), 100–111.CrossRef

Stacey, R. D. (2003). Strategic management and organisational dynamics, the challenge of complexity. London: Prentice-Hall.

Stacey, R. D., Griffin, D., & Shaw, P. (2002). Complexity and management, fad or radical challenge to systems thinking? London: Routledge.

Starkey, K., & Madan, P. (2001). Bridging the relevance gap: Aligning stakeholders in the future of management research. British Journal of Management, 12(Special Issue), S3–S26.CrossRef

Turner, D., & Crawford, M. (1994). Managing current and future competitive performance: The role of competence. In G. Hamel & A. Heene (Eds.), Competence based competition. Chichester: Wiley.

Whitehead, A. N. (1929). Process and reality, an essay in cosmology. Cambridge [Eng.]: University Press.

Title: Sustaining entrepreneurial business: A complexity perspective on processes that produce emergent practice
Authors: Ted Fuller
Lorraine Warren
Paul Argyle
Publication date: 01-03-2008
Publisher: Springer US
Published in: International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal / Issue 1/2008
Print ISSN: 1554-7191
Electronic ISSN: 1555-1938
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11365-007-0047-y

Springer Professional

Abstract

Please log in to get access to your license.

Dont have a licence yet? Then find out more about our products and how to get one now:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Other articles of this Issue 1/2008

Recall of autobiographical memory: A longitudinal analysis of franchisee experts

The new social entrepreneurship what awaits social entrepreneurial ventures?

Individual, organizational and environmental determinants of new firm employment growth: evidence from Latin America

The impact of desirability and feasibility on entrepreneurial intentions: A structural equation model

Labour productivity and employment in Australian manufacturing SMEs

Franchisee leadership traits vs. manager leadership traits an exploratory study comparing hope, leadership, commitment and service quality delivery