A Careers Perspective on Entrepreneurship

[Excerpt] What if being an entrepreneur were treated like any other occupation—teacher, nurse, manager? What if the decision to found a new venture were thought of as one of many options that individuals consider as they try to structure a meaningful and rewarding career? How would the field of entrepreneurship research be different? In our view, there is much to be learned by conceiving of entrepreneurship not solely as a final destination, but as a step along a career trajectory. Doing so opens the study of entrepreneurship to a wider range of scholarly insights, and promises important insights for entrepreneurial practice, training, and policy. This special issue takes an important step in this direction

The two sides of the coin : learning and inertia among Italian automobile producers, 1896-1981

Based on the premise that organizational learning and structural inertia are both rooted in prior organizational experiences, this paper examines under what conditions adaptation or selection will take place. We find that implementing a core change generates negative repercussions for survival but this effect can be countered by leveraging relevant core competencies. But we also argue that which of the two outcomes occurs is generally beyond the control of the organization. Instead, environmental transformations render what firms have learned relevant or obsolete, thereby facilitating learning-based adaptation or inertia-based selection. The direction in which organizational learning evolves is a combined function of organizational demographics and the structure of the competitive environment. We propose relevant hypotheses and test them in the analysis of data from the Italian Automobile Industry, 1896-1981. We report results of hazard rate models of failure and position change and discuss general implications

Introduction:Ecology versus strategy or strategy and ecology?

At its core, this volume tackles the contradictory views of the performance-enhancing effects of organizational flexibility and inertia head on, and in doing so, contributes to the development of theory and empirical evidence at the interface of strategic management and organizational ecology. In addition to the inertia–flexibility nexus, the volume explores a wide range of additional connections between these two perspectives across nine topical areas that both ecological and strategic management researchers have examined: (1) Entrepreneurship, (2) Top Management Teams, (3) Organizational Change, (4) Organizational Learning, (5) Technology Strategy, (6) Competitive Strategy, (7) Cooperative Strategy, (8) Scale and Scope, and (9) Industry Evolution

Introduction: Ecology versus strategy or strategy and ecology?

At its core, this volume tackles the contradictory views of the performance-enhancing effects of organizational flexibility and inertia head on, and in doing so, contributes to the development of theory and empirical evidence at the interface of strategic management and organizational ecology. In addition to the inertia–flexibility nexus, the volume explores a wide range of additional connections between these two perspectives across nine topical areas that both ecological and strategic management researchers have examined: (1) Entrepreneurship, (2) Top Management Teams, (3) Organizational Change, (4) Organizational Learning, (5) Technology Strategy, (6) Competitive Strategy, (7) Cooperative Strategy, (8) Scale and Scope, and (9) Industry Evolution