Innovation and organisational change: mobilising social capital through corporate entrepreneurship

This paper represents an attempt to integrate the concept of corporate entrepreneurship with the emerging literature on social capital. Corporate entrepreneurship (Burgelman, 1983) focuses on the activities of individuals who take-on responsibility for organisational innovation and change. Ideas associated with social capital draw attention to the importance of workplace relationships which provide resources for individuals based on mutual obligations, trust and expectations (Coleman, 1988). Empirical data are drawn from a long-term study of MFD a mature manufacturing firm located in a small town in north Wales. Change was initiated by the owner/managing director who was concerned about declining activity as the company lost its core business with the Ministry of Defence. The corporate entrepreneur was a middle manager who joined the company less than one year before the change programme began. Because he was new to the company, the corporate entrepreneur did not have reciprocal obligations to other employees and was able to identify a range of 'brokerage opportunities' (Burt, 1992) which he used to breakdown barriers between departments and between senior managers and other employees

Cooperation and conflict between two cultures: institutionalising NewBuC

As recently pointed out by Aldrich (2000), despite an extensive literature on entrepreneurship there are very few studies which examine the startup process. In this paper I report on my own involvement with an organisation formed to provide assistance to those considering starting their own businesses. NewBuC was the idea of Stan Astley an entrepreneur with a business located on Regional Science Park which he felt paid too little attention to technology-based firms. I, along with a small number of staff from X Business School, joined with Stan and his business associates to setup NewBuC as a viable organisation. This process is examined using ideas associated with institutional analysis in which "values and taken-for-granted assumption" have an important role in shaping the social interaction which is the foundation of all organisational activity. In establishing the organisation, differing norms and interpretive schemes associate with public and private sectors were quickly revealed. In particular, there was conflict between public sector philanthropy and the private sector desire for profits. Data are drawn from participant-observation and interviews with all the main actors to illustrate how the structuration of NewBuC occurred over an 18 month period

Rapid Recovery of Damaged Ecosystems

Background: Recent reports on the state of the global environment provide evidence that humankind is inflicting great damage to the very ecosystems that support human livelihoods. The reports further predict that ecosystems will take centuries to recover from damages if they recover at all. Accordingly, there is despair that we are passing on a legacy of irreparable damage to future generations which is entirely inconsistent with principles of sustainability. Methodology/Principal Findings: We tested the prediction of irreparable harm using a synthesis of recovery times compiled from240 independent studies reported in the scientific literature. We provide startling evidence that most ecosystems globally can, given human will, recover from very major perturbations on timescales of decades to half-centuries. Significance/Conclusions: Accordingly, we find much hope that humankind can transition to more sustainable use of ecosystems

PCR primers for an aldolase-B intron in acanthopterygian fishes

BACKGROUND: Nuclear DNA sequences provide genetic information that complements studies using mitochondrial DNA. Some 'universal' primer sets have been developed that target introns within protein-coding loci, but many simultaneously amplify introns from paralogous loci. Refining existing primer sets to target a single locus could circumvent this problem. RESULTS: Aldolase intron 'G' was amplified from four fish species using previously described primer sets that target several loci indiscriminately. Phylogenetic analyses were used to group these fragments and other full-length aldolase proteins from teleost fishes into orthologous clades and a primer set was designed to target specifically an intron within the aldolase-B locus in acanthopterygian fishes. DNA amplifications were tried in a variety of acanthopterygian fishes and amplification products, identifiable as aldolase-B intron 'G', were observed in all atherinomorph and percomorph taxa examined. Sequence variation within this locus was found within and among several species examined. CONCLUSIONS: Using 'universal' primer sets coupled with phylogenetic analyses it was possible to develop a genetic assay to target a specific locus in a variety of fish taxa. Sequence variation was observed within and among species suggesting that this targeted assay might facilitate interspecific and intraspecific comparisons

Social networks and business startups: a first-hand account of entrepreneurship

The topic of entrepreneurship has been the subject of a considerable amount of academic interest over the last twenty years. Despite a vast amount of published work there have been very few attempts to study the entrepreneurial process. In other words, we know little of what happens as an entrepreneur moves from idea to the objective reality of a fully functioning business. A more recent phenomenon has been the shift from a focus on entrepreneurial traits to the study of entrepreneurial networks. This is recognition that even the most individualistic of entrepreneurs rely heavily on their social relationships during the creation of a new business. These two factors, networks and the entrepreneurial process, are brought together in this paper which utilises a first-hand account of activities associated with business startups. The paper also examines the way in which MBA education provides useful skills to even the most experienced entrepreneur

New Business Ventures (NBVs) as activity systems

The first objective in this paper is to review the work of authors who have linked organizational theory with entrepreneurship. Secondly, the intention is to explore the possibilities of utilising activity theory as a conceptual framework for the study of new venture creation. The model developed by Engeström (1999) has six interlinked factors: subject, object, community, mediating artefacts, organizational rules and divisions of labour and knowledge. Relationships between subject (the entrepreneur) and object (the new business venture) are mediated through what Vikkunen (1996) describes as 'culturally formed artefacts' which include language, rules, division of labour and community. It is suggested that there is a direct link between 'the entrepreneurial process' and 'expansive learning' which is key to the effective enactment of new business ventures

Absorptive capacity and new organisational capabilities: a TCS case study

The term 'absorptive capacity' (Cohen and Levinthal, 1990), which describes the ability to assimilate new knowledge and skills, has been widely adopted in the study of collaborative links between organisations. In this paper the concept is used to examine the process by which participation in a Teaching Company Scheme (now know as TCS) helped develop managerial capabilities in a small manufacturing company over a two-year period. RSL is a family-owned business which has been in existence for forty years, has approximately 70 employees, and manufactures office supply equipment. It is concluded that improving absorptive capacity requires the introduction of new organisational routines which help codify tacit knowledge. Within RSL, such changes helped increase turnover by almost 25 per cent during the two years the TCS programme was in operation