Dermot Breslin | ESC RENNES SCHOOL OF BUSINESS (original) (raw)

Papers by Dermot Breslin

Studies in Higher Education, 2017

In today's knowledge-based economies, creativity in higher education has become a central focus f... more In today's knowledge-based economies, creativity in higher education has become a central focus for policy-makers. However, developing student creativity is still a challenge for higher education institutions. This paper seeks to contribute to our understanding of the creative processes at play in educational environments by using an experimental design to explore the time-of-day effect on group creativity. Examining 36 groups of university students, Experiment 1 explored differences in creative performance between morning and afternoon, and the optimal time of day for group creative exercises. Experiment 2 comprised 18 groups, and further studied the effect of chronotype on group creativity in the morning versus the afternoon. In both experiments a significant relationship was found between the timing of the group task and creative performance, with a peak in creative fluency around midday. This research thus points to a significant time of day effect in the creative process in groups.

Work, Employment and Society, 2016

Taking a longitudinal case study approach, this article examines the process of rule breaking in ... more Taking a longitudinal case study approach, this article examines the process of rule breaking in a newly formed UK domiciliary care provider. In this study, the founder acted in such a manner so as to partially decouple the organization from externally imposed institutional rules and regulations, allowing the emergence of informal rules between carer and client. These informal rules increasingly guided the behaviours of care workers over time, resulting in the breach of formal strictures. Building on the dimensions of hierarchy and contentiousness, rule breaking is conceptualized here as a phenomenon which occurs as a result of the tension between competing formal and informal rules, at multiple levels throughout the organizational hierarchy.

Organization Studies, 2021

Research has identified improvisation as a creative and open activity that can be harnessed to en... more Research has identified improvisation as a creative and open activity that can be harnessed to encourage innovation and learning within the organization. In this paper, we present improvisation as a covert phenomenon, occurring in a climate of mistrust and fear of censure, and disconnected with wider organizational learning. Drawing on qualitative evidence of a Fire Service in the United Kingdom, we explore hidden improvisation, and identify the conditions and processes that can connect these local deviations to wider processes of learning. We show that while most improvisations remain hidden and contained to avoid wider scrutiny, certain conditions of frequency, connectedness and scale escalate events to become more visible to supervisors and managers. The learning outcomes from these visible improvisations will then depend on management’s interpretation, evaluation and translation of improvising behaviours. Dependent on prior relationships of trust and credibility, middle manageme...

International Journal of Management Reviews, 2022

Entrepreneurial Learning, 2015

Over the past few decades an emerging group of social scientists have been adopting evolutionary ... more Over the past few decades an emerging group of social scientists have been adopting evolutionary approaches to study socio-cultural change. Some have taken this approach to reconceptualise the small business’ struggle for survival as an evolutionary process in which the entrepreneur must ‘learn to evolve’. In this chapter, this practice-based evolutionary language is explored. Entrepreneurial learning is thus reinterpreted as the co-evolution of components of knowledge through the mechanisms of variation-selection-retention. It is argued that if knowledge co-evolves, and more importantly if entrepreneurs become aware of this evolution, then they can learn to adapt, and so influence the wider evolutionary process within the firm and beyond.

Organization Studies, 2021

Past research has shown that routines can be a vehicle for both stability and change in organizat... more Past research has shown that routines can be a vehicle for both stability and change in organizations. It is unclear however how this relationship alters and solidifies over time. In this paper, the changing behaviours of three newly formed teams within a domiciliary care organization are tracked over a period of two years. It was seen that self-reinforcing processes shaped the emergence and persistence of action patterns within these groups. The first process achieved coordination benefits which drove the emergence of routines, as ‘action patterns’ were first negotiated and then assigned to members of the care team. The second self-reinforcing process involved sets of expectations which deepened interpersonal relationships between the care worker and client. The impact of both these processes, altered the ostensive-performative duality, as routines emerged and persisted over time. This study therefore highlights the changing dynamics of stability and change within routines, and the...

Perspectives in Entrepreneurship, 2012

ABSTRACT ‘From so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, a... more ABSTRACT ‘From so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved’ (Darwin, 1859, p. 490). In the closing lines of Darwin’s Origin of the Species he wonders at the force of evolution in biology, while at the same time putting forward the tantalising possibility that evolutionary forces might be at work in other domains of study. Since the publication of Darwin’s Origin of the Species (Darwin 1859), researchers in domains of study at times far removed from biology have expanded the key principles of Darwinian change to disciplines such as language, psychology, economics, behaviour and culture (Aldrich, 1999; Dennett, 1995; Durham, 1991; Nelson and Winter, 1982; Plotkin, 1994; Richerson and Boyd, 2005; Tooby and Cosmides, 1992). While there are differences in approach amongst these diverse strands of research, a perspective has emerged which has been labelled the Universal or Generalized Darwinist approach (Dawkins, 1983; Hodgson and Knudsen, 2010; Stoelhurst, 2008). Generalized Darwinists argue that at a sufficiently general level of abstraction a core set of general Darwinian principles of variation, selection and retention can be used to describe evolution within a variety of domains (Campbell, 1965; Hodgson and Knudsen, 2004), including biology, psychology, culture and economics. In this way the words of Darwin quoted above might even describe the evolution of different forms of organizations and industries from the simple beginnings of an entrepreneurial start-up in a Schumpeterian style industry birth.

The International Journal of Management Education, 2014

This paper presents an ecological/evolutionary approach to enterprise education. Ecological appro... more This paper presents an ecological/evolutionary approach to enterprise education. Ecological approaches are used at the University of Tasmania to heighten the awareness of students to a raft of difficult to observe environmental factors associated with developing enterprising ideas. At Sheffield University, the discovery and exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities is viewed as a co-evolving system of emerging business ideas, and routines/heuristics respectively. It is argued that using both approaches enables students to develop a greater awareness of their situated environment, and ultimately the degree of fit between their learning process and a changing external world. The authors argue that in order to improve the chances of longer-term survival what is needed is a new level of organisation where the individual is capable of developing a representation of the external world that he or she can use to sense the appropriateness of local decisions. This reinterpretation of events allows individuals to step back and examine the broader consequences of their actions through the interpretation and anticipation of feedback from the environment. These approaches thus seek to develop practice-based heuristics which individuals can use to make sense of their lived experiences, as they learn to evolve in an increasingly complex world.

Entrepreneurship Education, 2017

Abstract Interpreting venture creation as a process of learning allows potential entrepreneurs to... more Abstract Interpreting venture creation as a process of learning allows potential entrepreneurs to help themselves, and develop the skills and competences they required for business. The effectiveness of a learning-based approach to enterprise education is explored here. This study examines changing perceptions and performances of business students as they complete a new venture creation module. In this course, students are invited to interpret the start-up process as a process of learning, using an evolutionary metaphor. Several key findings were revealed. First, the evolutionary learning approach increased the self-efficacy of participants, as their self-belief and confidence in their ideas and abilities increased over the course of the module. This increase was even more pronounced within a sub-group who started their businesses within six months of completion of the course. Second, by adopting the ‘learning to evolve’ approach, participants increasingly focused changes made to their ideas on marketing-related issues. The more the individual focused on marketing as a source of change, the better the improvement in quality of the idea. This research has implications for enterprise educators and practicing entrepreneurs. When one shifts the focus of attention to the external world, and when changes are driven by signals from that external world, the quality of emerging opportunities is enhanced. Moreover, self-efficacy increases as nascent entrepreneurs gain confidence and self-belief both in their ideas, and the skills needed to make them happen. The shift in perspective towards the external market is the key driver in triggering the entrepreneurial process. The approach thus promotes the notion that the entrepreneurship option is open to all who can ‘learn to evolve’.

Moments of insight have played a key role in the evolution of technology over the decades. But ho... more Moments of insight have played a key role in the evolution of technology over the decades. But how can these ephemeral and enigmatic ‘eureka’ events be managed? This paper explores the role played by off-task breaks in triggering the unconscious processing of ideas. By breaking up the working day with low effort routine tasks and breaks, individuals can significantly enhance their creativity. So taking time away from the job becomes the key link in the creative process. This research therefore points to the careful management of off-task breaks during the innovation process.

ABSTRACT Purpose. In this chapter I present an account of the co-evolution of practices within a ... more ABSTRACT Purpose. In this chapter I present an account of the co-evolution of practices within a UK metallurgical equipment supplier throughout the 1990s. Scope. Using an evolutionary approach, I describe the development of practices at the level of the individual, group and organization, and the interaction between these levels, using the mechanisms of variation, selection and retention. Conclusions. It was seen that the exploitation of collective design practices within the organization, resulted in the organization failing to react to changing demands in the marketplace.

Studies in Higher Education, 2019

Whilst formative feedback has been highlighted as a key element in both student satisfaction and ... more Whilst formative feedback has been highlighted as a key element in both student satisfaction and learning, research highlights the dissatisfaction of both tutors and students with its effectiveness in improving performance. This study tracks changes in undergraduate student satisfaction and performance across three cohorts in response to variations in group-level feedback. The findings of the study show that an increased level of generic critical feedback targeted at the group had a positive impact on individual student performance, but a corresponding negative impact of student satisfaction scores. Thus, whilst the student cohort experienced a sense of collective despair, this did not constrain their ability to change and adapt to the feedback given. It is argued that instead of triggering a process of self-reflection and peer comparison, the group feedback given, increased team spirit and collective action, resulting in improved academic buoyancy and performance.

The International Journal of Management Education, 2014

This paper presents an ecological/evolutionary approach to enterprise education. Ecological appro... more This paper presents an ecological/evolutionary approach to enterprise education. Ecological approaches are used at the University of Tasmania to heighten the awareness of students to a raft of difficult to observe environmental factors associated with developing enterprising ideas. At Sheffield University, the discovery and exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities is viewed as a co-evolving system of emerging business ideas, and routines/heuristics respectively. It is argued that using both approaches enables students to develop a greater awareness of their situated environment, and ultimately the degree of fit between their learning process and a changing external world. The authors argue that in order to improve the chances of longer-term survival what is needed is a new level of organisation where the individual is capable of developing a representation of the external world that he or she can use to sense the appropriateness of local decisions. This reinterpretation of events allows individuals to step back and examine the broader consequences of their actions through the interpretation and anticipation of feedback from the environment. These approaches thus seek to develop practice-based heuristics which individuals can use to make sense of their lived experiences, as they learn to evolve in an increasingly complex world.

Evolving in a turbulent, fast-changing world As we advance into the 21 st century, organisations ... more Evolving in a turbulent, fast-changing world As we advance into the 21 st century, organisations today face an increasingly turbulent environment, with major socio-economic, financial and political shocks disrupting the status quo. On the one hand, we are told that organisations need to exploit knowledge and increase competitive advantage through experiential learning. On the other hand firms also need to explore new practices and knowledge to meet the changing demands of their business worlds. However managing these competing needs for stability through the exploitation of knowledge whilst at the same time adapting to change, might threaten the very existence of the firm (March, 1991), as a focus on one constrains the other. For example, the exploitation of knowledge through experiential learning can lead to a build up of behavioural and socio-political inertia within the organisation, suppressing variations from lower levels, making subsequent change difficult (Tushman and Romanel...

Journal of Management & Governance, 2015

The Learning Organization, 2019

Purpose Despite an increasing number of publications focusing on the phenomenon of entrepreneuria... more Purpose Despite an increasing number of publications focusing on the phenomenon of entrepreneurial learning, it is still unclear how this learning process differs from wider organizational learning. This paper aims to address this gap by highlighting four key processual dimensions unique to entrepreneurial learning: intuiting, scanning, internalizing and routinizing. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on various conceptual and empirical papers published in this area over the past 20 years, common threads in the literature are identified, which point towards these four key dimensions of entrepreneurial learning. Findings It is thus argued that the ability of the entrepreneurial team to learn form and adapt to changes in the external market involves all four dimensions of intuiting, scanning, internalizing and routinizing. Intuiting involves drawing on prior knowledge to create new opportunity sets, and skills. These ideas and skills are then tested in the market, through scanning an...

Studies in Higher Education, 2017

In today's knowledge-based economies, creativity in higher education has become a central focus f... more In today's knowledge-based economies, creativity in higher education has become a central focus for policy-makers. However, developing student creativity is still a challenge for higher education institutions. This paper seeks to contribute to our understanding of the creative processes at play in educational environments by using an experimental design to explore the time-of-day effect on group creativity. Examining 36 groups of university students, Experiment 1 explored differences in creative performance between morning and afternoon, and the optimal time of day for group creative exercises. Experiment 2 comprised 18 groups, and further studied the effect of chronotype on group creativity in the morning versus the afternoon. In both experiments a significant relationship was found between the timing of the group task and creative performance, with a peak in creative fluency around midday. This research thus points to a significant time of day effect in the creative process in groups.

Work, Employment and Society, 2016

Taking a longitudinal case study approach, this article examines the process of rule breaking in ... more Taking a longitudinal case study approach, this article examines the process of rule breaking in a newly formed UK domiciliary care provider. In this study, the founder acted in such a manner so as to partially decouple the organization from externally imposed institutional rules and regulations, allowing the emergence of informal rules between carer and client. These informal rules increasingly guided the behaviours of care workers over time, resulting in the breach of formal strictures. Building on the dimensions of hierarchy and contentiousness, rule breaking is conceptualized here as a phenomenon which occurs as a result of the tension between competing formal and informal rules, at multiple levels throughout the organizational hierarchy.

The International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, 2008

This paper expands on recent research, using an evolutionary approach to study entrepreneurship a... more This paper expands on recent research, using an evolutionary approach to study entrepreneurship and drawing on related concepts from the cognitive- and learning-based schools. It develops a process model that can be used as a basis for future research into the study of nascent small businesses. Following a brief overview of Universal Darwinism, the paper proposes new definitions for the concepts of the replicator and interactor, and describes the evolution of these concepts through the mechanisms of variation, selection and retention for the nascent small business. Finally, implications for practitioners and directions for future research are discussed.

The International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, 2013

This paper explores ‘evolution’ as a means of complementing our understanding and interpretation ... more This paper explores ‘evolution’ as a means of complementing our understanding and interpretation of creative innovation networks in small firms. The abstracted evolutionary mechanisms of variation, selection and retention (VSR) are employed to add a more dynamic interpretative framework to the reading of social networks and group structures. The paper thus presents a lens through which to appreciate creativity as an evolving and shared process. The principal aim of this research is to illustrate otherwise tacit informal relations within a small business through the application of a qualitative approach to social network analysis (SNA) and, in doing so, to present intra-firm relations as central to creativity and innovation – particularly as the organizational structure moves beyond the dominance of the founding entrepreneur.

Studies in Higher Education, 2017

In today's knowledge-based economies, creativity in higher education has become a central focus f... more In today's knowledge-based economies, creativity in higher education has become a central focus for policy-makers. However, developing student creativity is still a challenge for higher education institutions. This paper seeks to contribute to our understanding of the creative processes at play in educational environments by using an experimental design to explore the time-of-day effect on group creativity. Examining 36 groups of university students, Experiment 1 explored differences in creative performance between morning and afternoon, and the optimal time of day for group creative exercises. Experiment 2 comprised 18 groups, and further studied the effect of chronotype on group creativity in the morning versus the afternoon. In both experiments a significant relationship was found between the timing of the group task and creative performance, with a peak in creative fluency around midday. This research thus points to a significant time of day effect in the creative process in groups.

Work, Employment and Society, 2016

Taking a longitudinal case study approach, this article examines the process of rule breaking in ... more Taking a longitudinal case study approach, this article examines the process of rule breaking in a newly formed UK domiciliary care provider. In this study, the founder acted in such a manner so as to partially decouple the organization from externally imposed institutional rules and regulations, allowing the emergence of informal rules between carer and client. These informal rules increasingly guided the behaviours of care workers over time, resulting in the breach of formal strictures. Building on the dimensions of hierarchy and contentiousness, rule breaking is conceptualized here as a phenomenon which occurs as a result of the tension between competing formal and informal rules, at multiple levels throughout the organizational hierarchy.

Organization Studies, 2021

Research has identified improvisation as a creative and open activity that can be harnessed to en... more Research has identified improvisation as a creative and open activity that can be harnessed to encourage innovation and learning within the organization. In this paper, we present improvisation as a covert phenomenon, occurring in a climate of mistrust and fear of censure, and disconnected with wider organizational learning. Drawing on qualitative evidence of a Fire Service in the United Kingdom, we explore hidden improvisation, and identify the conditions and processes that can connect these local deviations to wider processes of learning. We show that while most improvisations remain hidden and contained to avoid wider scrutiny, certain conditions of frequency, connectedness and scale escalate events to become more visible to supervisors and managers. The learning outcomes from these visible improvisations will then depend on management’s interpretation, evaluation and translation of improvising behaviours. Dependent on prior relationships of trust and credibility, middle manageme...

International Journal of Management Reviews, 2022

Entrepreneurial Learning, 2015

Over the past few decades an emerging group of social scientists have been adopting evolutionary ... more Over the past few decades an emerging group of social scientists have been adopting evolutionary approaches to study socio-cultural change. Some have taken this approach to reconceptualise the small business’ struggle for survival as an evolutionary process in which the entrepreneur must ‘learn to evolve’. In this chapter, this practice-based evolutionary language is explored. Entrepreneurial learning is thus reinterpreted as the co-evolution of components of knowledge through the mechanisms of variation-selection-retention. It is argued that if knowledge co-evolves, and more importantly if entrepreneurs become aware of this evolution, then they can learn to adapt, and so influence the wider evolutionary process within the firm and beyond.

Organization Studies, 2021

Past research has shown that routines can be a vehicle for both stability and change in organizat... more Past research has shown that routines can be a vehicle for both stability and change in organizations. It is unclear however how this relationship alters and solidifies over time. In this paper, the changing behaviours of three newly formed teams within a domiciliary care organization are tracked over a period of two years. It was seen that self-reinforcing processes shaped the emergence and persistence of action patterns within these groups. The first process achieved coordination benefits which drove the emergence of routines, as ‘action patterns’ were first negotiated and then assigned to members of the care team. The second self-reinforcing process involved sets of expectations which deepened interpersonal relationships between the care worker and client. The impact of both these processes, altered the ostensive-performative duality, as routines emerged and persisted over time. This study therefore highlights the changing dynamics of stability and change within routines, and the...

Perspectives in Entrepreneurship, 2012

ABSTRACT ‘From so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, a... more ABSTRACT ‘From so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved’ (Darwin, 1859, p. 490). In the closing lines of Darwin’s Origin of the Species he wonders at the force of evolution in biology, while at the same time putting forward the tantalising possibility that evolutionary forces might be at work in other domains of study. Since the publication of Darwin’s Origin of the Species (Darwin 1859), researchers in domains of study at times far removed from biology have expanded the key principles of Darwinian change to disciplines such as language, psychology, economics, behaviour and culture (Aldrich, 1999; Dennett, 1995; Durham, 1991; Nelson and Winter, 1982; Plotkin, 1994; Richerson and Boyd, 2005; Tooby and Cosmides, 1992). While there are differences in approach amongst these diverse strands of research, a perspective has emerged which has been labelled the Universal or Generalized Darwinist approach (Dawkins, 1983; Hodgson and Knudsen, 2010; Stoelhurst, 2008). Generalized Darwinists argue that at a sufficiently general level of abstraction a core set of general Darwinian principles of variation, selection and retention can be used to describe evolution within a variety of domains (Campbell, 1965; Hodgson and Knudsen, 2004), including biology, psychology, culture and economics. In this way the words of Darwin quoted above might even describe the evolution of different forms of organizations and industries from the simple beginnings of an entrepreneurial start-up in a Schumpeterian style industry birth.

The International Journal of Management Education, 2014

This paper presents an ecological/evolutionary approach to enterprise education. Ecological appro... more This paper presents an ecological/evolutionary approach to enterprise education. Ecological approaches are used at the University of Tasmania to heighten the awareness of students to a raft of difficult to observe environmental factors associated with developing enterprising ideas. At Sheffield University, the discovery and exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities is viewed as a co-evolving system of emerging business ideas, and routines/heuristics respectively. It is argued that using both approaches enables students to develop a greater awareness of their situated environment, and ultimately the degree of fit between their learning process and a changing external world. The authors argue that in order to improve the chances of longer-term survival what is needed is a new level of organisation where the individual is capable of developing a representation of the external world that he or she can use to sense the appropriateness of local decisions. This reinterpretation of events allows individuals to step back and examine the broader consequences of their actions through the interpretation and anticipation of feedback from the environment. These approaches thus seek to develop practice-based heuristics which individuals can use to make sense of their lived experiences, as they learn to evolve in an increasingly complex world.

Entrepreneurship Education, 2017

Abstract Interpreting venture creation as a process of learning allows potential entrepreneurs to... more Abstract Interpreting venture creation as a process of learning allows potential entrepreneurs to help themselves, and develop the skills and competences they required for business. The effectiveness of a learning-based approach to enterprise education is explored here. This study examines changing perceptions and performances of business students as they complete a new venture creation module. In this course, students are invited to interpret the start-up process as a process of learning, using an evolutionary metaphor. Several key findings were revealed. First, the evolutionary learning approach increased the self-efficacy of participants, as their self-belief and confidence in their ideas and abilities increased over the course of the module. This increase was even more pronounced within a sub-group who started their businesses within six months of completion of the course. Second, by adopting the ‘learning to evolve’ approach, participants increasingly focused changes made to their ideas on marketing-related issues. The more the individual focused on marketing as a source of change, the better the improvement in quality of the idea. This research has implications for enterprise educators and practicing entrepreneurs. When one shifts the focus of attention to the external world, and when changes are driven by signals from that external world, the quality of emerging opportunities is enhanced. Moreover, self-efficacy increases as nascent entrepreneurs gain confidence and self-belief both in their ideas, and the skills needed to make them happen. The shift in perspective towards the external market is the key driver in triggering the entrepreneurial process. The approach thus promotes the notion that the entrepreneurship option is open to all who can ‘learn to evolve’.

Moments of insight have played a key role in the evolution of technology over the decades. But ho... more Moments of insight have played a key role in the evolution of technology over the decades. But how can these ephemeral and enigmatic ‘eureka’ events be managed? This paper explores the role played by off-task breaks in triggering the unconscious processing of ideas. By breaking up the working day with low effort routine tasks and breaks, individuals can significantly enhance their creativity. So taking time away from the job becomes the key link in the creative process. This research therefore points to the careful management of off-task breaks during the innovation process.

ABSTRACT Purpose. In this chapter I present an account of the co-evolution of practices within a ... more ABSTRACT Purpose. In this chapter I present an account of the co-evolution of practices within a UK metallurgical equipment supplier throughout the 1990s. Scope. Using an evolutionary approach, I describe the development of practices at the level of the individual, group and organization, and the interaction between these levels, using the mechanisms of variation, selection and retention. Conclusions. It was seen that the exploitation of collective design practices within the organization, resulted in the organization failing to react to changing demands in the marketplace.

Studies in Higher Education, 2019

Whilst formative feedback has been highlighted as a key element in both student satisfaction and ... more Whilst formative feedback has been highlighted as a key element in both student satisfaction and learning, research highlights the dissatisfaction of both tutors and students with its effectiveness in improving performance. This study tracks changes in undergraduate student satisfaction and performance across three cohorts in response to variations in group-level feedback. The findings of the study show that an increased level of generic critical feedback targeted at the group had a positive impact on individual student performance, but a corresponding negative impact of student satisfaction scores. Thus, whilst the student cohort experienced a sense of collective despair, this did not constrain their ability to change and adapt to the feedback given. It is argued that instead of triggering a process of self-reflection and peer comparison, the group feedback given, increased team spirit and collective action, resulting in improved academic buoyancy and performance.

The International Journal of Management Education, 2014

This paper presents an ecological/evolutionary approach to enterprise education. Ecological appro... more This paper presents an ecological/evolutionary approach to enterprise education. Ecological approaches are used at the University of Tasmania to heighten the awareness of students to a raft of difficult to observe environmental factors associated with developing enterprising ideas. At Sheffield University, the discovery and exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities is viewed as a co-evolving system of emerging business ideas, and routines/heuristics respectively. It is argued that using both approaches enables students to develop a greater awareness of their situated environment, and ultimately the degree of fit between their learning process and a changing external world. The authors argue that in order to improve the chances of longer-term survival what is needed is a new level of organisation where the individual is capable of developing a representation of the external world that he or she can use to sense the appropriateness of local decisions. This reinterpretation of events allows individuals to step back and examine the broader consequences of their actions through the interpretation and anticipation of feedback from the environment. These approaches thus seek to develop practice-based heuristics which individuals can use to make sense of their lived experiences, as they learn to evolve in an increasingly complex world.

Evolving in a turbulent, fast-changing world As we advance into the 21 st century, organisations ... more Evolving in a turbulent, fast-changing world As we advance into the 21 st century, organisations today face an increasingly turbulent environment, with major socio-economic, financial and political shocks disrupting the status quo. On the one hand, we are told that organisations need to exploit knowledge and increase competitive advantage through experiential learning. On the other hand firms also need to explore new practices and knowledge to meet the changing demands of their business worlds. However managing these competing needs for stability through the exploitation of knowledge whilst at the same time adapting to change, might threaten the very existence of the firm (March, 1991), as a focus on one constrains the other. For example, the exploitation of knowledge through experiential learning can lead to a build up of behavioural and socio-political inertia within the organisation, suppressing variations from lower levels, making subsequent change difficult (Tushman and Romanel...

Journal of Management & Governance, 2015

The Learning Organization, 2019

Purpose Despite an increasing number of publications focusing on the phenomenon of entrepreneuria... more Purpose Despite an increasing number of publications focusing on the phenomenon of entrepreneurial learning, it is still unclear how this learning process differs from wider organizational learning. This paper aims to address this gap by highlighting four key processual dimensions unique to entrepreneurial learning: intuiting, scanning, internalizing and routinizing. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on various conceptual and empirical papers published in this area over the past 20 years, common threads in the literature are identified, which point towards these four key dimensions of entrepreneurial learning. Findings It is thus argued that the ability of the entrepreneurial team to learn form and adapt to changes in the external market involves all four dimensions of intuiting, scanning, internalizing and routinizing. Intuiting involves drawing on prior knowledge to create new opportunity sets, and skills. These ideas and skills are then tested in the market, through scanning an...

Studies in Higher Education, 2017

In today's knowledge-based economies, creativity in higher education has become a central focus f... more In today's knowledge-based economies, creativity in higher education has become a central focus for policy-makers. However, developing student creativity is still a challenge for higher education institutions. This paper seeks to contribute to our understanding of the creative processes at play in educational environments by using an experimental design to explore the time-of-day effect on group creativity. Examining 36 groups of university students, Experiment 1 explored differences in creative performance between morning and afternoon, and the optimal time of day for group creative exercises. Experiment 2 comprised 18 groups, and further studied the effect of chronotype on group creativity in the morning versus the afternoon. In both experiments a significant relationship was found between the timing of the group task and creative performance, with a peak in creative fluency around midday. This research thus points to a significant time of day effect in the creative process in groups.

Work, Employment and Society, 2016

Taking a longitudinal case study approach, this article examines the process of rule breaking in ... more Taking a longitudinal case study approach, this article examines the process of rule breaking in a newly formed UK domiciliary care provider. In this study, the founder acted in such a manner so as to partially decouple the organization from externally imposed institutional rules and regulations, allowing the emergence of informal rules between carer and client. These informal rules increasingly guided the behaviours of care workers over time, resulting in the breach of formal strictures. Building on the dimensions of hierarchy and contentiousness, rule breaking is conceptualized here as a phenomenon which occurs as a result of the tension between competing formal and informal rules, at multiple levels throughout the organizational hierarchy.

The International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, 2008

This paper expands on recent research, using an evolutionary approach to study entrepreneurship a... more This paper expands on recent research, using an evolutionary approach to study entrepreneurship and drawing on related concepts from the cognitive- and learning-based schools. It develops a process model that can be used as a basis for future research into the study of nascent small businesses. Following a brief overview of Universal Darwinism, the paper proposes new definitions for the concepts of the replicator and interactor, and describes the evolution of these concepts through the mechanisms of variation, selection and retention for the nascent small business. Finally, implications for practitioners and directions for future research are discussed.

The International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, 2013

This paper explores ‘evolution’ as a means of complementing our understanding and interpretation ... more This paper explores ‘evolution’ as a means of complementing our understanding and interpretation of creative innovation networks in small firms. The abstracted evolutionary mechanisms of variation, selection and retention (VSR) are employed to add a more dynamic interpretative framework to the reading of social networks and group structures. The paper thus presents a lens through which to appreciate creativity as an evolving and shared process. The principal aim of this research is to illustrate otherwise tacit informal relations within a small business through the application of a qualitative approach to social network analysis (SNA) and, in doing so, to present intra-firm relations as central to creativity and innovation – particularly as the organizational structure moves beyond the dominance of the founding entrepreneur.

Entrepreneurship 2016 Syllabus by Professor Dermot Breslin for University of Rome Tor Vergata MSc... more Entrepreneurship 2016 Syllabus by Professor Dermot Breslin for University of Rome Tor Vergata MSc in Business ADministration.

In this research we put forward a view of social change as a process in which behaviours co-evolv... more In this research we put forward a view of social change as a process in which behaviours co-evolve within connected networks of agents. Change is therefore not viewed as an isolated event, but as part of a connected co-evolving system. An Agent-Based Modelling approach has been used to simulate changing household behaviours and associated fire risks within the Sheffield City region. By understanding how patterns of behaviour disseminate and persist in communities, this project seeks to improve the identification of areas at risk within vulnerable social groups. In addition the model will allow South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue to explore different future scenarios and plan intervention strategies to suit. The project will thus allow South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue to explore and better understand key behavioural, social and cultural factors underpinning changing fire risk behaviours over time.

Moments of insight have played a key role in the evolution of technology over the decades. But ho... more Moments of insight have played a key role in the evolution of technology over the decades. But how can these ephemeral and enigmatic 'eureka' events be managed? This paper explores the role played by off-task breaks in triggering the unconscious processing of ideas. By breaking up the working day with low effort routine tasks and breaks, individuals can significantly enhance their creativity. So taking time away from the job becomes the key link in the creative process. This research therefore points to the careful management of off-task breaks during the innovation process.

How do enterprises evolve? Stemming from Charles Darwin's seminal work The Origin of Species (185... more How do enterprises evolve? Stemming from Charles Darwin's seminal work The Origin of Species (1859), this standing track in the Research Methods and Research Practice SIG at EURAM seeks to contribute to the lively critical discussion about the possibility and opportunity to develop an evolutionary epistemology in management research. Scholars have provided much debate on what common features and differences exist in how organisms and organizations behave. Thus, as in the previous years, the track aims to attract papers interested in elaborating on whether important phenomena associated with the current practice of business can be conscientiously explained through the partial (or general) adoption of Charles Darwin's thought in social sciences. Examples include the studying of global issues such as the current financial crisis; the different rates of organizational birth and death worldwide; the competition or integration between social systems, national and international communities; the diverse adoption of technological innovation, and even the way through which culture, beliefs, values and norms diffuse. The track aims to build on a constantly growing body of evolution-based research within a wide range of disciplines such as management, organization, decision making, entrepreneurship and innovation, economic geography, philosophy and psychology. This is why, from both conceptual and methodological points of view, the track is open to all the various (and also cross-disciplinary) approaches flourished in the enterprise evolution research area over time. Thus, perspectives based on multi-level co-evolution, system thinking, ecology, memes, or agent-based modelling, constitute only examples of the welcomed submissions. In line with the EURAM 2018 Conference theme, submissions with a strong practitioner orientation are also particularly encouraged.

Nature and Aims of the Module Entrepreneurship was first coined as a term in the eighteenth centu... more Nature and Aims of the Module Entrepreneurship was first coined as a term in the eighteenth century but it was not until the second half of the twentieth century that the term achieved widespread usage and became a popular word to describe the enterprising, creative and opportunity-seeking behaviours of special types of individuals, organisations and regions. In this module, we shall consider how and why the 'enterprise culture' has become such a popular phrase for individuals, organisations, communities and governments alike. This is done by examining the various historical, economic, political and social assumptions about the nature of enterprise and entrepreneurship. In addition, because there is always an important human story behind enterprise activity and the creation of a small business, the module will examine many individual and organisational stories (from emerging, growing and mature businesses) in order to assess the factors and challenges involved in starting and running your own business. In this module, students will also have the opportunity to evaluate their personal orientations to entrepreneurship and sharpen their appreciation of what it is like being self employed, working in the family business, being an owner-manager, being a corporate entrepreneur or running a franchise business. Learning Outcomes On completion of this module, assuming that attendance, participation and completion of the assessment has been undertaken, the student should be able to: 1. a) Explain different types of entrepreneurial activity b) Identify a range of organisational and regional contexts within which entrepreneurship occurs c) Document the skills and attributes central to starting a business d) Assess how entrepreneurial ideas are realised e) Calculate their own orientation towards entrepreneurship f) Employ team building skills to develop a business idea 2. a) Understand the historical roots of entrepreneurship