| 1. |
- Lundberg, Hans, 1967-
(författare)
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Kommunikativt entreprenörskap : Underhållningsidrott som totalupplevelse före, under och efter formeringen av den svenska upplevelseindustrin 1999-2008
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In 2003, sixteen Swedish humanists proposed the idea of a communicative democracy. Same year, leading Scandinavian organizational theory scholars proposed that Scandinavian welfare states efforts to revitalize their democracies can be understood as ”a movement toward the development of a more charismatic and communicative model of leadership [where] focus has shifted to the organization of communication processes and the necessity of including several viewpoints in decision processes and public debates” (Byrkjeflot, 2003). The sixteen humanists proposed that the core of this way of making sense of post-industrial ICT societies could be understood trough the concepts of technology, democracy and academy (Kylhammar & Battail, 2003).In agreement with such line of thinking, the point of departure for this study is that a communicative democracy hardly can be generative without a fourth concept, the entrepreneur, which infuses agency to the humanist’s promising but rather structurally oriented conceptualization. The entrepreneurial agency is far from being an unproblematic one, though. As a celebrated form of agency in contemporary societies, to such an extent that the entrepreneur ”stands as a powerful creature capable of summoning the energies of the market society through sheer will power, creating the magic of entrepreneurship” (Rehn & Taalas, 2004), one better think twice about the sort of magic brought in.Invited here, with the purpose of empirically describing and theoretically introducing communicative entrepreneurship, is the rough-and-tumble secular magic of sports as entertainment. Guttmann (1978) declared sports being ”among the most discussed and least understood phenomena of our time”, a catchy but relevant slogan for an industry that at one hand generates an intense communicative presence in contemporary societies – “Sporting metaphors saturate everyday language […] sporting expressions pepper political, economic, educational and social discussions” (Booth, 2004) – but on the other hand is in the outskirts of the nowadays so embraced creative industry, as sports was excluded from the formative efforts undertaken by the Knowledge Foundation (KK-stiftelsen) when the Swedish version of the creative industry, the experience industry, was generated via innovative forms of communicative entrepreneurship.This tension between the proper and the grotesque is intriguing. Therefore – being a life philosophy for thousands of athletes and millions of their followers, an extremely detailed applied science, a globally omnipresent form of popular culture, a practice that since the rise of Olympism discursively is rooted in religion, and a multibillion dollar industry in which many stakeholders invest and extract their shares – the multidimensional practice of sports and entertainment and its communicative capacity is scrutinized via a close reading methodology termed genealogical storytelling (Hjorth, 2004).
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| 2. |
- Sandino Vargas, Enrique
(författare)
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Capturing the antecedents and aftermath of a family business process : The entrepreneurial journey of a displaced agricultural family in Colombia
- 2020
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This study examines a displaced agricultural family during its entrepreneurial journey in Colombia using a single case study, following an inductive and interpretivist approach. The main objective of the dissertation is to explain how family interactions, historical events, and context influence the decision to start and potentially reactivate an agricultural family business. It adopts the family as a unit of analysis for examining the intergenerational dynamics between spouses and siblings, parents, and offspring, and explores the family’s influence on decisions about creating a farming business, being forced to leave the land, and using the restituted land to potentially reactive the family business. The case study was conducted between 2016 and 2019 and includes a snapshot visit to the field, face-to-face interviews with members of three generations of the Cabrera family and other stakeholders, as well as abundant secondary materials. The snapshot visit to Colombia was important for obtaining sensitivity and an understanding of the displaced agricultural family on its land and the violence and crime that its members were e-posed to. The study adopts a narrative approach for presenting the accounts of the second and third-generation members. It adopts a window of time of the family-life context from 1958 to 2019. Family members’ life stories highlight critical events during the entrepreneurial Journey of the displaced agricultural family.Following the family through its life context, this study interprets the agricultural family members’ accounts of the formation of the family and its business, its land, displacement from the land, restitution of the land, and the potential reactivation of the business against the backdrop of violence, crime, and land evictions in the country. The Cabrera family’s entrepreneurial journey is interpreted along four phases making sense of the family history.The study extends habitualization as a perspective for addressing the underlying processes that influenced the family’s entrepreneurial Journey before the family created its family business and after the business exit. The habitualization perspective is interpreted considering how the family built its family capital and familiness. Familiness’ products, the family habitus, and the family business habitus are housed in the family’s experiences and knowledge. During its entrepreneurial Journey as a displaced agricultural family, the family also adopted different organizational forms, for instance, becoming a family or starting a family business, and as a result, gained the attributes of the transition affecting the construction of what constitutes its family habitus and the family business habitus. This dissertation proposes that the habitualization perspective can help us better understand the entrepreneurial Journeys of displaced agricultural families. Habitualization provides a bridge connecting a family’s past with its present and future. Recognizing the contextual circumstances, habitualization allows us to communicate a family’s past and its relation to the land, the former family business, and its familiness with the possibility of reactivating the farming business on its land or the family’s involvement in new businesses. Then, the familiness will not be lost in the past. In this way, the e-perience and knowledge of family members involved in the family business work for the benefit of the entrepreneurial activity and give the former family business a new and broader dimension of development.This dissertation also sheds light on the entrepreneurial journey of creating and recreating family dynamics around the possibility of starting and potentially reactivating a family business considering the family’s land and observing the effects of its contextual circumstances. Taking into account that the family clings to the family business for developing the family business habitus, the influence of the family business gains a greater scope, suggesting that the family business exerts a positive influence on the family and its interactions in favor of entrepreneurship and the family business. Finally, this study draws attention to the importance of displaced agricultural families in developing countries as a relevant phenomenon for studies on family businesses in circumstances surrounded by violence and crime. Considering that agriculture is a representative activity with family involvement in business and close interactions within the family, it is important to investigate this aspect more.
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| 3. |
- Hilmersson, Mikael, 1981-
(författare)
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Establishment of Insidership Positions in Institutionally Distant Business Networks
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Since the opening of formerly closed markets in Eastern Europe and China in the early 1990s, numerous firms have sought to capture the growth opportunities prevailing in the virgin but institutionally distant business networks in these countries. I claim that the entry process into an institutionally distant business network has been realised when the entering firm has reached an insidership position in the network. To advance this idea, the thesis introduces the overlooked medium-sized multinational exporter (MME) and answers the following overarching research questions: (I) how do MMEs establish insidership positions in institutionally distant business networks, and (II) what critical abilities are developed by MMEs in the process of entering an institutionally distant business network? To answer these questions, qualitative and quantitative methods have sequentially been mixed to first give an in-depth understanding of the empirical field, and second to verify and generalise some of the most central tentative findings. Empirically, the study reports from a case study of eight firms in the Baltic Sea Region and from an on-site survey of 203 Swedish firms with experience of entries in Eastern Europe and/or China. Five individual essays are presented—all designed to reflect different aspects of the institutionally distant network entry process. The findings are condensed in the cover of the thesis, where it is claimed that an insidership position is reached through three main phases: the Scouting phase, the Qualifying phase and the Shielding phase. Furthermore, it is found that that the most critical abilities developed through the institutionally distant network entry process is local experience-based knowledge of high specificity. It is shown that previous experiences, generated in different business networks in mature markets, are not useful in the network entry process in immature markets. As a consequence, there is reason to believe that the entering firm needs to develop unlearning abilities to replace obsolete or misleading experience.
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| 4. |
- Jogmark, Marina
(författare)
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Den regionala transformationsprocessens sociala dimension : Karlskrona1989-2002
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- How can we understand places and their development processes from a social perspective? The aim of this case study is to understand the emergence of an IT-industry in Karlskrona between 1989-2002 from a social capital perspective. Historically, the production and the form of life of the population in Karlskrona, has been characterized by the fact that Karlskrona is a naval city, which for several centuries has had a naval base and a naval ship yard. Karlskrona is also an interesting case to study because of the stagnation in the economy and the insignificant prospects for industrial renewal in the late 1980s. Despite these conditions, something happens that for a short period of time changes the local structure both in terms of production and population. How can we understand the social dimension of such a change?In a narrated form this case study highlights how the transformation of Karlskrona contain both bridging and bonding forms of social relations. The main purpose of this dissertation is accordingly to understand which networks of relations the key participants of the study are a part of and get resources from. The study also aim to highlight structures for action around the development of the IT-industry in relation to the ties that bind in the already established industrial specialization in Karlskrona, in other words the lasting relationships tied to the naval base, the navy and the naval yard. From this viewpoint questions are asked regarding what kind of social relations appear, both in the new and the old Karlskrona, and what it is in particular that characterizes the new social capital that makes up the key participants room to manoeuvre in the process of transformation for Karlskrona. The phenomenon where the place Karlskrona appears as socially divided between exchanges within the context of the new and the already established industry, is illustrated as two pillars of social capital. The pillars are assumed to be separated at the beginning of the transformation, and then they change as people live their lives and are included in new types of exchanges with each other. From the case specific study of the transformation of Karlskrona between 1989-2002, other, more general analytical connections are made in the discussion about how the dynamics of the transformation could be made possible, and why it stopped. From the theoretical viewpoint of social capital the dissertation follows a discussion about the lessons which can be learnt regarding the question how we can view places and their transformation processes. The conclusions particularly emphasize the importance of how newcomers can contribute as well as the crucial role held by border crossers when it comes tocreate linking social capital of the place.
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| 5. |
- Jogmark, Marina
(författare)
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Den regionala transformationsprocessens sociala dimension : Karlskrona 1989-2002
- 2015
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- How can we understand places and their development processes from a social perspective? The aim of this case study is to understand the emergence of an IT-industry in Karlskrona between 1989-2002 from a social capital perspective. Historically, the production and the form of life of the population in Karlskrona, has been characterized by the fact that Karlskrona is a naval city, which for several centuries has had a naval base and a naval ship yard. Karlskrona is also an interesting case to study because of the stagnation in the economy and the insignificant prospects for industrial renewal in the late 1980s. Despite these conditions, something happens that for a short period of time changes the local structure both in terms of production and population. How can we understand the social dimension of such a change?In a narrated form this case study highlights how the transformation of Karlskrona contain both bridging and bonding forms of social relations. The main purpose of this dissertation is accordingly to understand which networks of relations the key participants of the study are a part of and get resources from. The study also aim to highlight structures for action around the development of the IT-industry in relation to the ties that bind in the already established industrial specialization in Karlskrona, in other words the lasting relationships tied to the naval base, the navy and the naval yard. From this viewpoint questions are asked regarding what kind of social relations appear, both in the new and the old Karlskrona, and what it is in particular that characterizes the new social capital that makes up the key participants room to manoeuvre in the process of transformation for Karlskrona. The phenomenon where the place Karlskrona appears as socially divided between exchanges within the context of the new and the already established industry, is illustrated as two pillars of social capital. The pillars are assumed to be separated at the beginning of the transformation, and then they change as people live their lives and are included in new types of exchanges with each other. From the case specific study of the transformation of Karlskrona between 1989-2002, other, more general analytical connections are made in the discussion about how the dynamics of the transformation could be made possible, and why it stopped. From the theoretical viewpoint of social capital the dissertation follows a discussion about the lessons which can be learnt regarding the question how we can view places and their transformation processes. The conclusions particularly emphasize the importance of how newcomers can contribute as well as the crucial role held by border crossers when it comes tocreate linking social capital of the place.
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| 6. |
- Sandberg, Susanne
(författare)
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Internationalization processes of small and medium-sized enterprises: Entering and taking off from emerging markets
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The high economic growth of formerly closed markets such as China, Russia, Poland, and the Baltic states has created vast business and growth opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Although this international business expansion of SMEs occurs in highly dissimilar business contexts and fierce international competition, it remains overlooked by research. Therefore, the main aim of this thesis is to contribute to an enhanced understanding of internationalization processes of SMEs by studying the overarching research question: What are the main features of internationalization processes of SMEs in an emerging market context? Three sub-problems are researched with regard to SMEs entering and taking off from emerging markets, as well as differences and similarities between these processes, in order to identify what features characterize them. Empirically, two surveys of 116 and 203 Swedish SMEs, respectively, with experiences of entry into emerging markets were conducted through standardized questionnaires via mail and on-site visits. In addition, case studies were conducted through interviews and observations of five internationalizing Chinese SMEs and four Chinese wholesale and retail market platforms. Five essays are compiled within the thesis and major findings and conclusions provide theoretical and empirical contributions to research on the internationalization processes of SMEs. With regard to the overlooked internationally experienced manufacturing SMEs from mature markets such as Sweden, theoretical advancements are made identifying the main concepts of their entry into emerging markets: entry node (the establishment point into the foreign business network); market-specific experiential knowledge; and perceived institutional distance. With regard to the internationally novel Chinese SMEs, these were seen to diverge from traditional internationalization paths. Indications were found of a parallel expansion abroad and at home, even using foreign markets as a springboard for further growth at home. The take-off node concerns the departure from an emerging home market, where a paradox of knowledge was found: the use of indirect export via a domestic intermediary facilitates the take off, but hinders further international expansion since no international experience or relationships are built up. Moreover, institutional distance was reduced due to collective internationalization through co-locating abroad. Generally, degree of maturity of the home market; as well as degree of internationalization and type of firm; are the main features behind differences between internationalization processes of SMEs in an emerging market context.
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| 7. |
- Forslund, Magnus
(författare)
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Det omöjliggjorda entreprenörskapet : Om förnyelsekraft och företagsamhet på golvet
- 2002
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- There is nothing particularly revolutionary about the assertion that organisations today must be more entrepreneurial. However, one could rightly claim that interest was previously directed primarily at the anonymous organisation (as in Corporate Entrepreneurship) or executives at various organisational levels (as in intrapreneurship). Now, the focus is on production personnel. The question is: what happens in an organisation when one attempts to mobilise production personnel to engage in entrepreneurship? The little that has been written about this issue in established research has been relatively uncritical. For this reason and in an attempt to go beyond established concepts, I begin this dissertation with social constructionism and an ethnographic study, which consists of a number of narratives about Termos, a Swedish company with 200 employees. This study is not one that illustrates successful change. If anything, it discusses the issue of how both the production personnel and management made entrepreneurship impossible on the shop floor. A core question revolves around male and female images, and how women's self-images prevent them from taking the steps necessary to implement innovations. Another key point treats the issue of how management, in a confusion-inducing manner, mixes the vocabularies and actions of two different ideologies-managerialism and entrepreneurialism. One moment, management is talking about the importance of taking initiative; next, it is punishing personnel who do not "follow the system". Add to this the fact that both managerialism and entrepreneurialism threaten the ideology that guides the actions of production personnel. In turn, different types of resistance strategies are set in motion A critical reading of the literature on entrepreneurship reveals that it is also rendered impossible on the shop floor since these texts neglect production personnel. Only "real" entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial managers are discussed and honoured, while production personnel are just an exploitable resource. In this way, the ideologies of both entrepreneurship and management are understood as being "bad". Nevertheless, it is possible to see entrepreneurship on the shop floor at Termos. To do this, one needs to understand entrepreneurship that focuses on the organisation of resources into new patterns stemming from perceived possibilities, without the introduction of restrictions regarding type or size. It is also an understanding that rejects the idea of the entrepreneur as a subject position who prevents the production personnel from practicing entrepreneurship. Instead, it puts forth the notion that it is individuals who lend themselves to entrepreneurship. Furthermore, proximity is vital to understanding entrepreneurship in context, where we can "see" it. In conclusion, the dissertation maintains that there is every reason to demystify entrepreneurship if we wish it to happen everywhere, even on the shop floor.
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| 8. |
- Höglund, Linda, 1972-
(författare)
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Discursive practices in strategic entrepeneurship : discourses and the use of repertoires in two firms
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This is a thesis in marketing concerned with entrepreneurship in established firms and the discursive practices that take place within a perspective of strategic entrepreneurship. The study of discursive practices in this context assumes a concern with how different aspects of entrepreneurship are produced and consumed by people in text and talk. Strategic entrepreneurship can be seen as an organisational form of entrepreneurship. The latest contribution within strategic entrepreneurship tends to focus on opportunities and advantages in organisations as two processes that need to be considered and managed jointly.In this thesis, I have studied the discursive practices of how scholars position strategic entrepreneurship through an enhanced literature review and by means of a close analysis of assumptions made within strategic entrepreneurship, but also by studying two firms and their discursive practices of constructing opportunity and advantage positions. The results have then been analysed with reference to discourse theory and previous research within entrepreneurship based on European traditions that builds on the linguistic turn.By conducting an empirical study of two firms, I have studied discourses in use, and how they are produced by people. In so doing, two main findings emerge in the discussion of the empirical results: 1) Opportunity and advantage positions emerge in social interaction and are co-constructed. 2) Opportunity and advantage positions are constructed by the use of multiple discourses, on different levels of discourse and for different functions. The main purpose of the thesis is to enhance the understanding of entrepreneurship in established firms and the activities labelled as strategic entrepreneurship. In addressing the purpose, seven theoretical, methodological and empirical contributions to research emerge in areas of strategic entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship and the enterprising self.
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| 9. |
- Ramírez-Pasillas, Marcela, 1971-
(författare)
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Global Spaces for Local Entrepreneurship : Stretching clusters through networks and international trade fairs
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Many of the insightful writings on clusters identify the role of entrepreneurs as key agents in the formation of firms and clusters. This thesis argues instead that local entrepreneurship is not ceased once firms and clusters are established; local entrepreneurship is about the continuous (re)creation of both businesses and clusters in global spaces. Global spaces for local entrepreneurship emphasises how firms collectively become an agent of continuous renewal. Firms enact an organising context materialising in networks that stretch relations and collaborations according to the issues being dealt with. These networks are localised but are extended beyond the geographical boundaries of clusters. One important example of this, which is in focus in this doctoral thesis, is that firms operating in clusters often interact with actors whom they have met at international trade fairs (ITFs). ITFs are those attractive events that individuals, firms and institutions attend temporarily to exhibit and trade products in foreign and national markets.This thesis is based on the work contained in a cover and five papers. Each paper contributes to the research objective and questions brought forward in the thesis cover. The empirical evidence has been mostly drawn from several case studies conducted in the Lammhult cluster in Sweden. The findings show that firms build their organising contexts in order to stretch the reach and accessibility to local and non-local actors; they jointly co-create potential opportunities. The organising contexts are mapped in networks using three proximity orders. The empirical findings report three types of situations in which there is a potential opportunity for continuous renewal. By emphasising the opportunities that can be originated when a business is not realised or when a new or improved product or process has not been generated yet, this thesis aims to stimulate a theoretical reappraisal of global spaces for local entrepreneurship. With the conceptual development of global spaces for local entrepreneurship, we put forward the idea that such spaces enhance an ability to renew firms and clusters. The underlying reason is that local entrepreneurship is centered on the social interaction between individuals, firms and/or institutions; it materialises in intended and unintended dialogical situations when there is a commitment to the continuous renewal of firms and clusters. Such dialogical situations carry with them an opportunity for co-creating new businesses, new products and new processes.
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| 10. |
- Rosell, Erik, 1975-
(författare)
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Entreprenörskap som kommunikativ handling : skapande av interaktion, uppmärksamhet och manifestationer
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The purpose of the present thesis is to create an understanding of entrepreneurship interpreted as communicative action. This is done through reflections on an interactive study that was planned and conducted together with members of a civic network-organization called Societal Change in Practice (SIP). According to Habermas, civic organizations are ideally characterized by a communicative rationality that enables them to organize informal public spheres; that is, arenas in social life where individuals can come together to discuss and act upon societal problems or opportunities that they have experienced in their private life-spheres.I have actively participated in three ventures with members from SIP. The first venture revolves around my own and members from SIP’s respective practices as education coordinators. Based on our common interest in education and learning in relation to entrepreneurship, we planned and conducted a series of joint activities that also involved our respective student groups. The activities are interpreted based on my own personal experiences as a researcher participating in a project that requires commitment and responsibility. The second venture involves the creation of a local community magazine that highlights examples of civic initiatives in two municipalities. The production of the magazine is interpreted as an example of how SIP creates public opinion in the local community. The third event relates to the organization of a conference on the subject of youth and digital media. The main message of the conference is interpreted in terms of a manifestation of what the public sphere can accomplish, or as a reaction in defense of a well-functioning public sphere in society.The methodological contribution of the thesis is its definition of three interactive research roles based on my own interaction as a researcher in different kinds of ventures. Based on a theatrical metaphor, I argue that the researcher can participate as one of the directors of a venture, as a member of the ensemble that performs a venture, or as a member of the audience that observes an event.The theoretical contribution of the study is that it shows how Habermas’ theory of communicative action can be modified and made useful as a theoretical frame of reference for studying entrepreneurship in civil society. Entrepreneurship is understood as a way to vitalize the informal public sphere, thereby influencing society as a whole and not just its economy.
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| 11. |
- Tidasen, Christine, 1971-
(författare)
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Att ta över pappas bolag : En studie av affärsförbindelser som triadtransformationer under generationsskiften i familjeföretag
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The family firm sector is volatile due to for example challenges associated with management and ownership succession. Family businesses in Sweden, as well as globally, make an important part of the economy. It is well known that successions are critical transition processes for these firms. While this problem has been approached mainly as an internal managerial or financial challenge, this dissertation discusses the social dimensions of how successors transform family firms and especially personal networks during successions. Triads are used to create understanding for succession processes; the successor and the C.E.O. always contribute to triads. The third (wo)man is another family member, a co-worker, or an external actor, frequently a customer. To make sense out of the triad, one must understand the individuals and their relations. Particularly the relation between the C.E.O. and the successor is being analyzed. Further internal and external relations and how they are being transferred and transformed in a triadic context during successions provide a context for the triads and are considered as well. Accounts from four Swedish manufacturing family firms and their business partners show that the C.E.O.’s personal network infiltrates the environment, both internally and externally, and that the successor must earn trustworthiness to be able to transform the companies and the C.E.O.’s network. The trustworthiness seems to be easier to create on an external arena where the C.E.O. is not present. On that arena the successors can build their own platforms from where they can conquer other relations. It appears that the successor first has to show capability of creating their own external business relations before they can transform the existing internal and external network. Successors should also focus on working, for the family business, in new projects that contribute a new competence to the firm. When a family business is transformed identity development is crucial. The “child” must change its identity from being the next generation to be an obvious C.E.O. on own merits. Keywords: family business, succession, trust, relation, triad, network, identity
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| 12. |
- Bill, Frederic, 1972-
(författare)
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The Apocalypse of Entrepreneurship
- 2006
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This monograph represents an attempt to rethink some of the fundamentals of entrepreneurship research, arguing that an entrepreneurial method for going about research ought to be about trying hitherto unthought-of perspectives. Apocalypsing, the method proposed and deployed in order to carry out this rethinking, deals simply with venturing beyond the already perceived. Drawing on the structuralism of the renowned anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss, societal discourse on entrepreneurship is animated by analysing articles from a Swedish news agency. This analysis forms the foundation for a rereading of a North American myth, the Story of Lynx, as it is retold by Lévi-Strauss. The reinterpretation is aimed at demonstrating how this myth could also be perceived as an entrepreneurship narrative. This build up then culminates in a reframing of an academic monograph dealing with learning in an industrial district, a culmination in which the apocalyptic apparatus is shown, demonstrating the lack of a true signifier. Thus, something normally seen as familiar with regard to entrepreneurship is read/written ‘out of’ the taken for granted perception. Then something normally seen as very exotic, that is the story of Lynx, with regard to entrepreneurship is read/written ‘in to’ the field, thereby folding the phenomena in a new way, making the apparent inside an outside and the apparent outside an inside, elaborating in this way on the possibility of a cosmological perception of entrepreneurship. Next follows a rereading of another scientific text, one that is powered mainly by a case study of an industrial district. Using this story, an attempt to tear away the veil that obscures entrepreneurship is made, demonstrating how entrepreneurship can be seen as a part in a series of substitutable elements. Instead of a ‘true’ meaning, entrepreneurship links up with other labels, arranging itself into a series of substitutable explanations regarding why the world is the way it is. In the next step, drawing upon the colourful descriptions in the Book of Revelations, attempts are made to present other entrepreneurships. Inspired by Gilles Deleuze, various understandings, various horsemen of the apocalypse, are allowed to emanate from the material presented by Gustafsson (2004). Thus, it is shown how entrepreneurship could be multiplied beyond the apocalypse. Thus, Gustafsson’s field-accounts are used to elaborate on the four horsemen: who they are, what they do – which is perhaps somewhat surprising – and what they do not do. That is, the Apocalypse or apocalyptic apparatus is moved through the region and it leaves in its wake another understanding. Finally venturing back into the field of entrepreneurship research, this study elaborates on what the apocalypse and its aftermath would imply for our understanding of the various attempts to research the phenomena of entrepreneurship. Surprisingly, this leads us to the discovery that entrepreneurship research resides in Limbo.
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| 13. |
- Ramírez-Pasillas, Marcela
(författare)
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Embedded regional networking
- 2004
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This licentiate thesis is about the socio-economic activities of regional networks. The research objective is to explore and describe the networking activities taking place between the organisations embedded in such networks. The objective also includes studying the consequences of those networking activities for regional industrial activities as a whole. The thesis reports the findings of four papers, each dealing with different parts of the research objective and conceptual framework articulated in the introductory chapter. The empirical data was collected through case studies of the furniture industry in Lammhult, the silk industry in Como, and the furniture industry in the Metropolitan area of Jalisco. The results imply that firms, non-profit organisations, and government agencies bind together in regional networks in the three cases studied. These regional networks each have distinguishing characteristics: the particular motives for forming the network, the firms and organisations available locally, and the firms’ common area of specialisation in each case. These regional networks share some similarities in these regards, and these similarities influence the objectives, member selection, network hub selection, and initial activities of the networks. These characteristics differ among the regional networks with respect to their initiation and duration. Within a time-frame, the members of the regional network select complementary members and define specialised objectives and activities. The results also reveal that regional networks have different network activities that are characterised by distinct mixtures of temporal, spatial, social, and market embeddedness. The mixtures of different types of embeddedness result in diverse development trajectories in which regional networks have similar and different networking activities over time. The most common type of collaboration among the members of regional networks is their joint participation in international tradeshows. Regional networks develop more specialised networking activities over time, even though these activities take time – sometimes years – to be planned, co-ordinated, realised, and evaluated. The results also indicate that the networking activities of the regional networks have diverse consequences for the industrial activity in the three studied regions.
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