| 1. |
- Hellerstedt, Karin, 1975-
(författare)
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The Composition of New Venture Teams : Its Dynamics and Consequences
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- New venture team composition lies at the heart of this thesis. Drawing on social-psychological explanations and human capital reasoning, the thesis addresses the social as well as the instrumental foci facing new venture teams. This is done by addressing four research questions: 1) What are the characteristics of new venture teams and their team members? 2) What impact does team composition and firm performance have on team dynamics? 3) What impact does team member characteristics and individual deviation have on individual dynamics? 4) How does team composition and team dynamics influence firm performance? Dynamics is studied by investigating the adding and dropping of team members.Research on entrepreneurial teams is characterized by several methodological challenges that this thesis takes on. First, there is a lack of longitudinal studies. Second, no studies are based on truly random samples of teams. Third, the unit and level of analysis has been the team and the firm. Rarely is the individual considered. In addition, the thesis sheds light on team diversity and its effects as well as the relationship with performance, both as an antecedent and as a consequence.The empirical setting is based on a unique database covering all individuals entering into self-employment in knowledge-intensive industries in Sweden during the 1996 to 2000 period. Their firms are tracked annually up to 2002, providing a census panel three to seven years long consisting of five cohorts. This is done by using secondary data from Statistics Sweden (SCB) covering information on individuals as well as their firms. By combining individual and firm level data, the thesis demonstrates how team level constructs can be obtained.Overall, the hypothesized relations predicting team member and individual exits receive strong support. Entries to teams and the performance of the firms are not as well explained by the chosen constructs. The findings show that greater internal diversity along some but not all demographic dimensions is positively associated with a higher rate of team member exits. More precisely,when diversity can be linked to status differences, the impact is more pronounced. Furthermore, the findings show that deviation from others in the group has an impact on which individual is likely to leave the team. There are also considerable differences in behavior between teams consisting of spousal pairs and other teams. In fact, the findings show that spousal couples venturing together are very common and that the typical team does not match the entrepreneurial team as it often is portrayed in the literature. In sum, the study suggests that diversity in attributes related to status can influence team stability. In addition, trust and prior relationships appear to be especially important for the creation and development of new venture teams.
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| 2. |
- Hunter, Erik
(författare)
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Celebrity entrepreneurship and celebrity endorsement : Similarities, differences and the effect of deeper engagement
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Increasingly, celebrities appear not only as endorsers for products but are apparently engaged in entrepreneurial roles as initiators, owners and perhaps even managers in the ventures that market the products they promote. Despite being extensively referred to in popular media, scholars have been slow to recognize the importance of this new phenomenon. This thesis argues theoretically and shows empirically that celebrityentrepreneurs are more effective communicators than typical celebrityendorsers because of their increased engagement with ventures. I theorize that greater Engagement increases the celebrity's Emotional Involvement as perceived by consumers. This is an endorser quality thus far neglected in the marketing communications literature. In turn, Emotional Involvement, much like the empirically established dimensions Trustworthiness, Expertise and Attractiveness, should affect traditional outcome variables such as Attitude Towards the Advertisement and Brand. On the downside, increases in celebrity engagement may lead to relatively stronger and worsening changes in Attitudes Towards the Brand if and when negative information about the celebrity is revealed. A series of eight experiments were conducted on 781 Swedish and Baltic students and 151 Swedish retirees. Though there were nuanced differences and additional complexities in each experiment, participants' reactions to advertisements containing a celebrity portrayed as a typical endorser or entrepreneur were recorded. The overall results of these experiments suggest that Emotional Involvement can be successfully operationalized as distinct from variables previously known to influence Communication Effectiveness. In addition, Emotional Involvement has positive effects on Attitudes Toward the Advertisement and Brand that are as strong as the predictors traditionally applied in the marketing communications literature. Moreover, the celebrity entrepreneur condition in the experimental manipulation consistently led to an increase in Emotional Involvement and to a lesser extent Trustworthiness, but not Expertise and Attractiveness. Finally, Negative Celebrity Information led toa change in participants' Attitudes Towards the Brand which was more strongly negative for celebrity entrepreneurs than celebrity endorsers. In addition the effect of negative celebrity information on a company's brand is worse when they support the celebrity rather than fire them. However this effect did not appear to interact with the celebrity's purported Engagement.
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| 3. |
- Kim, Jiyoung
(författare)
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External enablers and new venture creation : How characteristics of environmental changes and enabling mechanisms influence entrepreneurial responses
- 2023
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Changes in the external environment—whether technological breakthroughs, natural environmental disasters, regulatory reforms, economic shifts, sociocultural movements, or demographic transitions—provide the essential enablement of entrepreneurial endeavors and outcomes. Despite extensive existing research on this topic, the predominant focus on a single type of change has hindered the attainment of broadly generalizable insights or advancements in theoretical and practical knowledge. This dissertation aims to foster a unified understanding of how environmental changes enable the creation of new ventures. To this end, it draws attention to the characteristics of changes and enablement shared across different nominal types of change.The notion of external enablers and the external enablement framework provide conceptual foundations for the four research articles included in this dissertation. The first article, a systematic literature review, demonstrates the potential for studying the characteristics of environmental changes and external enablement as a means of accumulating vastly broadened knowledge. The three remaining empirical articles delve into entrepreneurial responses to environmental changes. Experimental data evidence that variance in the characteristics of environmental changes and external enablement causes systematic differences in perceptions of entrepreneurial potential and intentions to create specific types of new ventures, i.e., family vs. non-family. This dissertation offers novel theoretical insights into the enabling impact of environmental changes on entrepreneurship. It also showcases different pathways for advancing generalizable knowledge that can be strategically applied.
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| 4. |
- Cyron, Thomas
(författare)
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How organizations incorporate insights from stakeholder communication : The role of media and modal affordances
- 2021
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Organizations are increasingly opening up to external voices that might carry new insights and help organizations to find their place in society. But the context through which organizations communicate with their stakeholders shapes how communication unfolds. Traditionally, organizations communicated with their stakeholders through shareholder letters, town hall meetings, or printed advertisements. Nowadays, cyberspace has opened up communication in multiple ways. It affords fast and boundless two-way communication between organizations and stakeholders and among stakeholders, that can be both a blessing and a curse. In any case, changes in the communication landscape have affected all types of organizations—large corporations, small and medium-sized enterprises, and newly started ventures.My research connects to ongoing discussions on how new media have shaped the landscape of organizations. Specifically, I explore how organizations incorporate insights from stakeholder communication from a practice-based view. This view allows me to magnify and understand better how the communication context shapes the interaction. My empirical research focuses on stakeholder communication in a single-case study of the world’s largest miniature model railway exhibition and three new venture ideation cases. I employ a mix of qualitative research methods, including digital data collection techniques.A bricolage of the four papers included in this dissertation frames the insights under the assumption that communication constitutes organization. It allows me to conceptualize the incorporation of new insights from stakeholder communication as a co-authoring process. Specifically, I show that modes provide the meaning-making resources through which humans communicate organizations into being. Media act as vessels of modes and shape how stakeholders can interact with—and co-author—the modes.My future research agenda focuses on two aspects. First, I suggest following more closely how new narratives that stakeholders offer during the co-authoring process subsequently travel through an organization. This question is particularly relevant in larger corporations where the newly proposed narratives have to travel more considerable distances between stakeholder communication practices and decision-making practices. Second, I suggest investigating stakeholder communication from a design perspective, that is, a study of the heuristics that managers and entrepreneurs employ before engaging in stakeholder communication.
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| 5. |
- Holmberg, Lars
(författare)
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Neural networks in context: challenges and opportunities : a critical inquiry into prerequisites for user trust in decisions promoted by neural networks
- 2023
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Artificial intelligence and machine learning (ML) in particular increasingly impact human life by creating value from collected data. This assetisation affects all aspectsof human life, from choosing a significant other to recommending a product for us to consume. This type of ML-based system thrives because it predicts human behaviour based on average case performance metrics (like accuracy). However, its usefulnessis more limited when it comes to being transparent about its internal knowledge representations for singular decisions, for example, it is not good at explaining why ithas suggested a particular decision in a specific context.The goal of this work is to let end users be in command of how ML systems are used and thereby combine the strengths of humans and machines – machines which can propose transparent decisions. Artificial neural networks are an interesting candidate for a setting of this type, given that this technology has been successful in building knowledge representations from raw data. A neural network can be trained by exposing it to data from the target domain. It can then internalise knowledge representations from the domain and perform contextual tasks. In these situations, the fragment of the actual world internalised in an ML system has to be contextualised by a human to beuseful and trustworthy in non-static settings.This setting is explored through the overarching research question: What challenges and opportunities can emerge when an end user uses neural networks in context to support singular decision-making? To address this question, Research through Design is used as the central methodology, as this research approach matches the openness of the research question. Through six design experiments, I explore and expand on challenges and opportunities in settings where singular contextual decisions matter. The initial design experiments focus on opportunities in settings that augment human cognitive abilities. Thereafter, the experiments explore challenges related to settings where neural networks can enhance human cognitive abilities. This part concerns approaches intended to explain promoted decisions.This work contributes in three ways: 1) exploring learning related to neural networks in context to put forward a core terminology for contextual decision-making using ML systems, wherein the terminology includes the generative notions of true-to-the-domain, concept, out-of-distribution and generalisation; 2) presenting a number of design guidelines; and 3) showing the need to align internal knowledge representations with concepts if neural networks are to produce explainable decisions. I also argue that training neural networks to generalise basic concepts like shapes and colours, concepts easily understandable by humans, is a path forward. This research direction leads towards neural network-based systems that can produce more complex explanations that build on basic generalisable concepts.
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| 6. |
- Marell Molander, Agneta, 1964-
(författare)
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The household decision making process in replacement of durable goods
- 1998
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- As durables are essential in many households, the level of ownership is high and, due to the high degree of penetration, a vast proportion of the current sales are replacement purchases. Even though a lot of research attention has been paid to decision making and decision processes many models are oriented towards non-durable goods and although a majority of purchases of many durable goods are replacements, few studies seem to make a distinction between a replacement purchase decision and a decision to buy an item for the first time.The purpose of this thesis has been to increase the understanding of the consumer decision process in replacement purchase. More specifically, the research focus has been on the cognitive mechanisms behind the formation of a replacement decision and on factors affecting the timing of a replacement purchase of durable goods. Choosing to study the timing of replacement decisions reflects the emphasis on the ongoing process, not merely on what is happening at a certain moment. Many studies in the consumer behaviour research are cross-sectional and by using cross-sectional data, there is a risk of identifying cohort effects rather then identifying effects stemming from the individual process over time. This thesis' focus on the process is reflected in and emphasised by the choice of method, both a cross-sectional and a longitudinal study have been undertaken.In order to address the research question, a theoretical framework and model were developed. The model is based on the traditional idea that many actual purchase decisions are realised through the approach of problem solving, entailing problem identification, information search, evaluation of alternatives, choice, and action. The underlying assumption of the model is that purchase expectations are related to a comparison between an aspiration level, defined in accordance with Simon's (1956) satisficing principle, and an evaluation of the currently owned product (current level). Purchase expectations are believed to be the result of a cognitive process encompassing the comparison between aspiration level and current level. When the discrepancy between aspiration level and current level goes beyond a noticeable difference, a purchase expectation is assumed to be formed and the purchase process initiated.The results from this studyreveal that the cognitive mechanism behind a replacement decision can be explained in accordance with the proposed model: Consumers compare the currently owned product with requirements of product for the same usage and if the current product falls below the requirements, replacement plans are formed. The timing of the replacement is therefore argued to depend both on factors effecting the requirements of a product for the same usage (the aspiration level), and on factors affecting the perception of the current product (the current level).Moreover, the study indicates that problem identification initiated through a change either in aspiration level or in current level might evoke different decision strategies and consequently, the problem identification stage might be more important for marketing strategies than previously assumed. The results aslo highlight the importance of considering the consumers present stage in the decision process for achieving an efficient segmentation for market communication as product attributes important early in the process might not be important later in the process.
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| 7. |
- Gustafsson, Veronica
(författare)
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Entrepreneurial decision-making : Individuals, tasks and cognitions
- 2004
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of the present study is to gain a deeper understanding of decision-making of individuals involved in the entrepreneurial process. It is achieved by comparing entrepreneurs with different level of expertise in contexts that are more or less entrepreneurship-inducing. The issues of learning and expertise – investigation of what entrepreneurial knowledge is and how it is applied – are also addressed.This is an attempt of a multidisciplinary study based on entrepreneurship theory and empirical research as well as cognitive psychology. The cognitive perspective provides a link between the entrepreneur and the new venture creation through focusing not on the personality traits, but on an individual’s cognitive behaviour.The study’s contributions to the field of entrepreneurship are as follows: Expert entrepreneurs do recognise the cognitive nature of the decision task and are able, to a high extent, to match their decision-making techniques with the nature of the task. It means that the entrepreneurial decision-making is not an inborn aptitude but a skill, which is expressed through the adaptable behaviour of experts. Novice entrepreneurs, however, do not possess this ability, even though they might acquire it in the course of their business lives.Thus, one of the most important implications of the study is the idea that adequate decision behaviour in entrepreneurial context can be taught and learned. To provide optimal methods of learning is a challenge faced by entrepreneurship education.
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| 8. |
- Holmberg, Lars, et al.
(författare)
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Mapping Knowledge Representations to Concepts : A Review and New Perspectives
- 2022
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Ingår i: Explainable Agency in Artificial Intelligence Workshop Proceedings. ; , s. 61-70
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The success of neural networks builds to a large extent on their ability to create internal knowledge representations from real-world high-dimensional data, such as images, sound, or text. Approaches to extract and present these representations, in order to explain the neural network's decisions, is an active and multifaceted research field. To gain a deeper understanding of a central aspect of this field, we have performed a targeted review focusing on research that aims to associate internal representations with human understandable concepts. In doing this, we added a perspective on the existing research by using primarily deductive nomological explanations as a proposed taxonomy. We find this taxonomy and theories of causality, useful for understanding what can be expected, and not expected, from neural network explanations. The analysis additionally uncovers an ambiguity in the reviewed literature related to the goal of model explainability; is it understanding the ML model or, is it actionable explanations useful in the deployment domain?
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| 9. |
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| 10. |
- Samuelsson, Mikael
(författare)
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Creating new ventures : A longitudinal investigation of the nascent venturing process
- 2004
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This study contributes, empirically, theoretically and methodologically, to entrepreneurship research, theory, and practice. I provide answers to three major questions regarding venture opportunity variation, variation in the nascent venturing process, and outcomes from this process. Conclusions and implications are based on theoretically derived hypotheses and empirical information from 622 venture opportunities, which we followed from discovery throughout the nascent venturing process and beyond.New survey design as well as state of the art longitudinal statistical methods made it possible to extend our knowledge into the nascent stages of the entrepreneurial process. This research is an extension and empirical test of recent conceptual discussions in the field and moves the entrepreneurship research toward an opportunity based theory of the creation of new economic activity.
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