Toward a paradigm of symbiotic entrepreneurship (original) (raw)

Changing Paradigms of International Entrepreneurship Strategy

Journal of International Entrepreneurship, 2003

This article identifies sweeping transformations taking place in the contemporary international business environment, and discusses their impact on international entrepreneurship. We focus on two overarching trends: (1) the demise of the nation-state as the relevant unit around which international business activity is organised and conducted; and (2) the demise of the stand-alone firm, with a hierarchic distribution of power and control, as the principal unit of business competition. We then discuss an alternate approach to internationalisation: one that involves a multi-polar distribution of power and control. Traditional approaches to internationalisation focus on the hierarchic centralised firm, with a uni-polar distribution of power and control. We suggest that the world is moving towards multi-polar networks of firms, involved in what we term symbiotic management: each entity benefits from working together within a multi-polar network. This includes large corporations as well as small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). As corporations out-source to specialised firms–increasingly SMEs–power and control are dispersed among independently owned firms that are cooperating voluntarily for increased efficiency and profit. The new paradigm moves from a focus on the firm, towards a focus on relationships within multi-polar networks. We conclude by illustrating how this emerging competitive paradigm may impact on the strategic management of small firms, with examples from a real-world company.

Entrepreneurial ecosystems in an interconnected world: emergence, governance and digitalization

Review of Managerial Science, 2021

Achieving and sustaining growth depends on the effective work of multiple and interconnected actors—such as e.g. governments, the private sector, society, universities, entrepreneurs and many others—who build an ecosystem, i.e. a social and economic environment for innovative and entrepreneurial endeavors. The underlying idea is that firms do not just compete with each other through well-developed stand-alone strategies to achieve advantages over their rivals, uniquely relying on their own resources, knowledge, and capabilities, but rather base their business models on shared resources, network externalities, knowledge spill-overs, local endowments, and governmental support. This introductory article offers a wide array of topics, methods and fields of application within the field of entrepreneurial ecosystems as well as a theorizing about potential fruitful future areas of research within the field, concentrating on legitimation and identification processes in ecosystems, possibly ...

Business Revolution through Corporate Entreprenuership

Journal of Poverty, Investment and Development, 2014

This paper examines corporate entrepreneurship as a tool for economic prosperity in the global arena from the standpoint of the roles to be played by the business organizations.The global economy is creating profound and substantial changes for organizations and industries throughout the world. In times of global crisis and increasing pressures on companies to follow strategies for a competitive position on the global markets, many top management executives have to apply different approaches referred to as corporate entrepreneurship and the creation and maintenance of knowledge networks. Many organizations are increasingly looking to “corporate entrepreneurship” as a way of combating the lethargy and bureaucracy that often accompany size due to the fact that for organizations to grow and survive they must change and adapt to increasing competition, client needs and the economic climate in which they live.Corporate entrepreneurship is defined as entrepreneurship activities withi...

Entrepreneurial Ecosystems in Transitions: Through the Lenses of Local and Global Politics

2018

he global competition challenge has become a call to action for both the private and the public sector to find innovative ways to foster entrepreneurship. In this context, the concept of entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE) has become a metaphor used to foster entrepreneurship as an economic development strategy. A functioning EE will be fueled by the synergy created by leadership, governance, and institutions aimed at mobilizing capital labor and resources. Emerging and functioning entrepreneurial ecosystems alike are the result of a rather lengthy process, not necessarily structured, in which entrepreneurs take the risks of launching their ideas and make sustained efforts to disrupt the long-standing accepted norms. They are the disrupters. The 21 century confirms Schumpeter’s prescient assessment that entrepreneurs are the key agents of creative destruction and provides examples showing that EEs are characterized by continued transformation and are informed by and have a direct effect ...

Toward New Horizons: The Internationalisation of Entrepreneurship

Journal of International Entrepreneurship, 2003

Why a new journal? One of the earliest uses of the term international entrepreneurship was in McDougall's (1989) seminal article, which explored the differences between international and domestic entrepreneurship. This introduced another dimension to the concept of internationalisation proposed and defined by Welch and Luostarinen (1988) the previous year, as the process of increasing involvement in international operations. At that time, international competition was largely the domain of large firms, and trade and investment regulations, and less developed transport and communication systems inter alia, posed considerable barriers to small, resource constrained firms. Internationalisation was an expansion option of interest to some enterprises, but seldom was it a competitively viable possibility. Traditional internationalisation theories, therefore, focused mainly on larger, established, already-multinational firms, and, with the exception of export-based theories, were less pertinent to smaller firms or those at early stages in their life cycles (Keindleburger and Audretsch, 1980). While research on large multinational corporations initially dominated the field of international business studies, research on small and medium sized enterprise (SME) internationalisation has grown prolific over the last two decades (Buckley, 1989; Fujita, 1995a, 1995b; Preston and Heller, 1997). The role of the entrepreneur however, has been conspicuously under explored in international business journals. Meanwhile, journals concerned with small firms, entrepreneurship and business venturing, have focused on entrepreneurs and their relatively small enterprises, but until recently, paid little attention to international aspects of entrepreneurial business (Acs and Yeung, 1999). Empirical evidence from around the world suggests that a growing number of firms are becoming involved in various international, business activities from a very early age, and while still relatively small. Recognition of the

Entrepreneurship in the Network Economy

hugovelthuijsen.net

The network economy typically signifies a notion from the information society where new products and services are developed by collaborating individuals and/or businesses organised in virtual networks. The network economy has important characteristics in common with Northern European governance models, which suggests a direction for developing workable governance models for businesses engaging in network economy activities. This resemblance presents a unique perspective on global economic development. Innovation can and should be combined with high ethical, social and environmental standards. This is illustrated by empirical data on Hidden Champions in Europe: middlesized companies that are dominant in their specific market niches. We suggest that the rise of the network economy could have far-reaching consequences for the way businesses should be organised and managed.

Interdependent entrepreneurs and the social discipline of their cooperation: a research programme for structural economic sociology in a society of organizations

Conventions and Structures in Economic Organization, 2002

Economists have long focused on markets as exchange mechanisms, and many economic sociologists have also used the same approach. This focus emphasized the importance of price and that of the social embeddedness of economic transactions among actors, whether individuals or organizations. Focusing on the production side of economic activity, however, underlines the fact that society is a society of organizations (Presthus, 1962; White, 1981b; Stokman et al., 1985; Coleman, 1990; Perrow, 1991), with specific social mechanisms underlying collective action. From the latterÕs perspective, saying that society is an organizational society is also equivalent to saying that its intrinsically multi-level dimension should frame Ð much more than it currently does Ð soci-ologistsÕ perspective on human, including economic, activity. In our view, this additional focus reframes analyses of both market exchange and social exchange (Blau, 1964) of resources as they are connected in production. This approach advocates new combinations of theories of individual action and theories of collective action. Within such a perspective, priority is given here to the study of social exchange and cooperation among interdependent entrepreneurs, at the intraorganizational and interorganizational levels. In short, this study is about the social discipline that helps interdependent entrepreneurs in their collective action. Entrepreneurs are not conceived as individuals acting on their own, but as individuals, and organizations, interacting with, and investing in, other entrepreneurs as peers or quasi-peers in order to make collective action possible. The sociology of organizations has been able to design an ideal-typical View publication stats View publication stats

Governance and strategy of entrepreneurial networks: an introduction

Small Business Economics

This special issue focuses on empirical and theoretical papers that help us to better understand the strategy and governance of entrepreneurial networks, such as franchise chains, alliances, and cooperative networks. The following central themes are covered: (I) Which formal governance mechanisms do entrepreneurial networks use in order to reduce transaction cost/agency cost and to increase strategic value? (II) What is the role of relational governance mechanisms (such as information exchange and social ties) for the performance outcomes in franchise chains and cooperatives? (III) Which alliance strategies do entrepreneurial firms pursue to realize a competitive advantage, and what is the impact of resources and capabilities on performance outcomes of entrepreneurial firms. To address these issues, insights from organizational economics (transaction cost theory, agency theory, signaling theory), strategic management perspectives (resource-based, knowledge-based and organizational capabilities theory), entrepreneurship theory and the relational governance view are used.