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- Astner, Hanna, et al.
(författare)
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Identities at work in developing a new market
- 2021
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Ingår i: Journal of Research in Marketing and Entrepreneurship. - 1471-5201. ; 23, s. 1-23
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the roles of identities in entrepreneurial processes during the development of a new market. Two research questions are used: How do the founder's identity, corporate identity and market identity interact as a new market is developing, and what are the functions of identity in the entrepreneurial process?Design/methodology/approachThis qualitative research is grounded in a study of multiple cases, from which five Swedish start-ups have been selected. Interviews were conducted with the founders at several points in time and accompanied by observations of websites, media performance, policy documents and commercial material. Analysis was conducted in an iterative process between empirics and theory.FindingsThe findings show how identities develop in entrepreneurs, firms and the market and how the interactions between these three levels of identity affect the development of each. The authors recognize and discuss three functions of identity: a constructing function, in which identity is used to create a new firm and market; a guiding function, which navigates between identities by imposing identity work on founders, firms and markets; and a configuring function, which takes part in shaping contexts.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper opens a space for future research on identities to advance understandings of how new firms and markets are developed. Investigating identity shows the importance of context to entrepreneurial processes. This points towards a need for researching different contexts, but also to the potential limited value of this study.Practical implicationsThe paper offers guidance to founders and managers in understanding and navigating different identities. Founders and managers are provided with a set of critical questions, which aim to assist when managing identity-related concerns.Originality/valueThere is a vast amount of literature on the development of companies and markets, yet start-ups in new markets operate in different contexts and face different challenges that we know less about. This paper targets the latter and proposes identity as a useful lens for understanding the dynamics between entrepreneurs, start-ups and the new market.
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| 3. |
- Berglund, Karin, et al.
(författare)
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Provoking identities : entrepreneurship and emerging identity positions in rural development
- 2016
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Ingår i: Entrepreneurship and Regional Development. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0898-5626 .- 1464-5114. ; 28:1-2, s. 76-96
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article discusses entrepreneurship in a depleted community in transition. The purpose is to develop knowledge about how discourses are used in the positioning of identity in regional development. The concept positioning illustrates how identities are provoked, challenged, negotiated and moved into identity positions that break away from the idea of imitating successful and wealthy regions; instead, locality, place and history emerge as important resources from where local actors obtain agency and recognize new opportunities. Ethnographic data of a single case were collected over a six-year period between 2005 and 2010. The longitudinal nature of the study made it possible to incorporate how local stakeholders took on new identity positions, while handling their inspiration as well as their frustration. Results show how rural change was conditioned by discourses and how entrepreneurship challenged and reframed dominating structures through interaction between entrepreneurship and community. Four discourses, expressed as dichotomies available to people in this depleted community, illustrate the interactive process of positioning: change vs. traditions, rational vs. irrational, spectacular vs. mundane and individual vs. collective. The results support research emphasizing perspectives that acknowledge interaction between entrepreneurship and context as well as discursive aspects of regional development.
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| 4. |
- Bill, Frederic, 1972-, et al.
(författare)
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Constructing and de-constructing entrepreneurial enclaves : a Deleuzian take on regional mobilization
- 2013
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Ingår i: The 31st SCOS (The Standing Conference on Organizational Symbolism) in Warsaw, 13-16 July, 2013.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- IntroductionThis paper is based on ongoing interactive research on entrepreneurial enclaves in southern Sweden aimed at promoting regional development through interaction between local stakeholders, academics and undergraduate students. The enclave concept has been used in previous research, also in entrepreneurship, but then primarily when dealing with networking and self-employment among ethnic minority groups. (Butler & Wilson, 1990; Andersson & Hammarstedt, 2012) Here we draw on the work of Deleuze & Guttari (1980) by asking what the effects of introducing the enclave concept in a regional community are, rather than trying to identify or pinpoint what an entrepreneurial enclave is as such. Thus, the purpose of our paper is to gain increased understanding regarding the productiveness of the enclave concept.Research designThe project began with topics considered important by local stakeholders, as identified during role-play based semi-focused groups (Bill & Olaison, 2009), and then this was translated these into a number of projects which students supervised by academic researchers try to realize together with local stakeholders. Semi-focused groups are a method founded on pragmatism and intended to place the respondents in a fictive but still familiar situation by giving them a task and roles close to their everyday experience. The intention is to gain understanding not only regarding how they would talk about something, but also how they would act in a certain situation. (Putnam, 1995; Bill et al., 2009)Preliminary findingsWhen dealing with entrepreneurial regions, previous research has generally tried to identify them and then sought to create some sort of template for recreating them elsewhere. However, it would be naïve to believe that this attention will not in itself influence the behavior of the residents in the region. The border between observer and observed therefore starts to dissipate.The basis for our research is that we are initially, simply by declaring them, creating the entrepreneurial enclaves that we subsequently study. Furthermore, simultaneously we are also creating a number of non-entrepreneurial enclaves in the region simply by not pinpointing or highlighting them. In our empirical work consisting of semi-focused groups and continuous interaction with local stakeholders this has become especially visible on a number of occasions. In the paper we present three cases where the existence of our project has influenced the way the local stakeholders consider themselves and their region. These are: I) The medieval church, a battle of belonging. II) Expectations of the Other - or not saying no to developing the Lake of the Fox. III) Voices of the recent, participating to participate.ConclusionsThe conclusions from this project are that the acts of creating and identifying entrepreneurial enclaves are overlapping and intertwined, that the entrepreneurial enclave is amorphous in the sense that its spatial/social limitations fluctuates and that the region is often
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| 7. |
- Bjerke, Björn, 1941-, et al.
(författare)
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Starting a business venture rationally or naturally : exploiting an opportunity in space or developing a place
- 2017
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Ingår i: Research Handbook on Entrepreneurial Opportunities. - Cheltenham : Edward Elgar Publishing. - 9781783475445 - 9781783475438 ; , s. 68-87
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This chapter develops a theoretical framework for understanding how entrepreneurship develops in space and place. It takes an eclectic view on entrepreneurship and emphasizes its interactive dependence with different types of context. First, a distinction between a narrow and a broad view of entrepreneurship is introduced. In the narrow view, entrepreneurship is seen as an economic phenomenon satisfying demands in different markets, whilst, in the broad view, entrepreneurship belongs to the whole society, not only to its economy, and is a question of creating something new. Second, the chapter argues for an emerging, bricoleurial way of understanding the entrepreneurial process, rather than the rational, analytically based approach so common in entrepreneurship theory. Third, the chapter presents space and place as theoretical categories; ‘space’ is understood as an economic evaluation of a situation based on its capacity for profit, and ‘place’ is seen as a societal situation based on meaning. Finally, the theoretical framework based on the three distinctions is illustrated by two cases. To conclude, a narrow, goal-rational approach to entrepreneurial venturing works well with context understood as space, whilst a broader, natural understanding of entrepreneurship will include an interactive relation with place.
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| 9. |
- Ferguson, Richard, et al.
(författare)
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Mixed embeddedness and rural entrepreneurship
- 2012
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Entrepreneurship is a key driver of development in rural areas. Studies have shown that in-migrants and returnees are overrepresented among rural entrepreneurs, and that their entrepreneurship might be more important for local development than local entrepreneurs at least in terms of economic value creation. It is likely that the reason for this lies in the importance of embeddedness. Studies have shown that local embeddedness is a source of opportunities for rural entrepreneurs, yet also indicate that being overly embedded can inhibit entrepreneurial activites. It thus seems that a form of mixed embeddedness, of the kind that in-migrants and returnees are likely to embody, is conducive to entrepreneurial activity. In this paper we explore the nature and function of mixed embeddedness of rural entrepreneurs. We do this through a qualitative multiple case study of rural entrepreneurs in the Nordic countries. Preliminary results suggest that mixed embeddedness is in fact important and that this may be the reason for the overrepresentation of in-migrants and returnees. Furthermore, it seems that mixed embeddedness enables a bridging of social and spatial contexts.
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| 10. |
- Ferguson, Richard, et al.
(författare)
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The best of both worlds: how rural entrepreneurs use placial embeddedness and strategic networks to create opportunities
- 2015
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Ingår i: Entrepreneurship and Regional Development. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0898-5626 .- 1464-5114. ; 27, s. 574-598
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Entrepreneurial activities are strongly influenced by the context in which they occur. It is therefore imperative to understand how different contexts enable entrepreneurs to create opportunities. In this paper, we focus on the spatial context of rural entrepreneurs and explore how the rural context impacts on their opportunity creation. Based on a multiple case study, we find that rural entrepreneurs mix what we refer to as placial embeddedness - an intimate knowledge of and concern for the place - with strategically built non-local networks, i.e. the best of two worlds. Notably, the entrepreneurs seek to exhaust the localized resource base before seeking out non-local resources. Our findings thus contribute to our understanding of entrepreneurship in context and challenge future research to explore how different forms of contexts are bridged in different settings to create varieties of entrepreneurial activities.
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