The entrepreneurial journey as an emergent hierarchical system of artifact-creating processes

doi:10.1016/j.jbusvent.2014.09.002

Journal of Business Venturing

Volume 30, Issue 4, July 2015, Pages 603-615

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2014.09.002 Get rights and content

Highlights

•
The entrepreneurial journey should be a key unit of analysis in process explanations of entrepreneurial events.
•
Entrepreneurship is an emergent hierarchical system of artifact-creating processes.
•
Entrepreneurial journey is Levels 1–3 within hierarchical system.
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Levels 1–3 operationalized as unit of analysis to explain events in empirical case.
•
Research implications discussed for process inquiry.

Abstract

Entrepreneurial ‘process’ perspectives explain the events of an entrepreneurial journey in terms of mechanisms, such as ‘effectual logic’, ‘bricolage’, ‘dynamic creation’, ‘opportunity tension’ and ‘enactment’. Process theorists, however, have not as yet developed an analytical framework that explains an entrepreneurial event in relation to the entrepreneurial journey as the unit of analysis. Building on Sarasvathy's (2003, 2008) and Venkataraman et al.'s (2012) conception of entrepreneurship inquiry as a ‘science of the artificial’ (Simon, 1996), we explain how this research gap can be addressed by conceptualizing the entrepreneurial journey as an ‘emergent hierarchical system of entrepreneurial artifact-creating processes’. From this perspective, entrepreneurial events can be explained in relation to the endogenous dynamics of prior patterns of artifact emergence. We discuss some research implications of focusing on artifact emergence as a key unit of analysis in process theory development.

Section snippets

Executive summary

The covering law principle that causal relationships are deducible from timeless and context-free laws is the underlying assumption of ‘variance’ theory — the received view in entrepreneurship inquiry (Van de Ven and Engleman, 2004). In recent years, however, there has been a growing momentum behind the ‘process’ view (Steyaert, 2007, Van de Ven and Engleman, 2004) that variance theory does not adequately account for what entrepreneurs actually do under conditions of genuine uncertainty (

The emergent hierarchical system of entrepreneurial artifact-creating processes

According to Simon, 1962, Simon, 1973/1977, Simon, 1996, a science of the artificial studies the creation of human artifacts, which are those “objects and phenomena in which human purpose as well as natural law are embodied” (Simon, 1981: 6). Human artifacts are emergent outcomes of practical activities, such as engineering, medicine, business, architecture and painting, which are purposefully designed for an uncertain future in the context of uncertain contingencies. In other words, a science

Explaining critical events in the entrepreneurial journey

In this section, we operationalize the venture emergence system in order to explain critical events in the emergent path of an entrepreneurial journey. In particular, we focus on the events of phase transitions into new patterns of artifact emergence associated with the transformation of means–end relationships. We understand transformation here to refer to either (1) redefining means–end relationships in the sense of initiating a new pattern of emergence by altering the business idea, or (2)

Research implications

The notion of the entrepreneurial journey as an emergent hierarchical system of artifact-creating processes has important research implications for future directions in process research. Our primary concern in this article is the significance of the emergent hierarchy for our understanding of the entrepreneurial journey as a unit of analysis. In variance theory a unit of analysis is an entity, such as an entrepreneur, network, firm or market, and the causal properties of entities are the focus

Conclusion

In this article, we have taken up Venkataraman et al.'s (2012) proposal that entrepreneurship inquiry should move forward as a science of the artificial by considering the significance of hierarchically organized artifact-creating processes for process theory development. We have argued that the ability to conceptualize the entrepreneurial journey in terms of hierarchically organized patterns of artifact emergence contributes to our understanding of the endogenous, self-causing,

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The entrepreneurial journey as an emergent hierarchical system of artifact-creating processes

Highlights

Abstract

Section snippets

Executive summary

The emergent hierarchical system of entrepreneurial artifact-creating processes

Explaining critical events in the entrepreneurial journey

Research implications

Conclusion

Res. Policy

J. Bus. Ventur.

J. Bus. Ventur.

J. Econ. Psychol.

Cogn. Sci.

J. Bus. Ventur.

J. Bus. Ventur.

Hierarchy and history in Simon's ‘Architecture of Complexity’

J. Learn. Sci.

The accidental entrepreneur: Campbellian antinomies and organizational foundings

Discovery and creation: alternative theories of entrepreneurial action

Strateg. Entrep. J.

Creating something from nothing: resource construction through entrepreneurial bricolage

Adm. Sci. Q.

Poetics and performance as critical perspectives on language and social life

Annu. Rev. Anthropol.

Researching entrepreneurship as lived experience

The innovation journey: order out of chaos?

Organ. Sci.

Organizational emergence: the origin and transformation of Branson Missouri's musical theatres

Organ. Sci.

Dynamic creation: extending the radical Austrian approach to entrepreneurship

Organ. Stud.

Is anything ever new? Considering emergence

Levels of analysis in entrepreneurship research: current research practice and suggestions for the future

Entrep. Theory Pract.

Emergence versus self-organization: different concepts but promising when combined

On the entrepreneurial genesis of new markets: effectual transformation versus causal search and selection

J. Evol. Econ.

Beyond the single-person, single-insight attribution in understanding entrepreneurial opportunities

Entrep. Theory Pract.

Grappling with the unbearable elusiveness of entrepreneurial opportunities

Entrep. Theory Pract.

Entrepreneurial processes and the social construction of opportunity

Entrep. Reg. Dev.

Industrial Dynamics

Entrepreneurial alertness and opportunity discovery: origins, attributes, critique

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

Int. J. Entrep. Manag.

A conceptual framework for describing the phenomenon of new venture creation

Acad. Manag. Rev.

An Issue about The Republic of Tea, Entrepreneurial Narrative Theory

Ethnomethodology and Reflexivity

Acting as if: differentiating entrepreneurial from organizational behaviour

Entrep. Theory Pract.

Synergetics, an Introduction: Nonequilibrium Phase Transitions and Self-Organization in Physics, Chemistry, and Biology

Adaptation in Natural and Artificial Systems

Dynamics in action: intentional behavior as a complex system

Emergence

Opportunity discovery, entrepreneurial action and economic organization

Strateg. Entrep. J.

Risk, Uncertainty and Profit