Patterns of project-based organizing in new venture creation: Projectification of an entrepreneurial ecosystem
International Journal of Managing Projects in Business
ISSN: 1753-8378
Article publication date: 11 April 2018
Issue publication date: 24 May 2019
Abstract
Purpose
The creation of a new venture is at the heart of entrepreneurship and shares parallels with project-based organizing: embedded in an institutional context, founders have to assemble a team that works on specified tasks within a strict time constraint, while the new venture undergoes various transitions. The purpose of this paper is to explore parallels between both streams of research and an increasing projectification of entrepreneurship.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based upon a case study of the Berlin start-up ecosystem including the analysis of interviews (n=52), secondary documents, and field observations.
Findings
The paper reveals that – shaped by their institutional context – patterns of project-like organizing have become pertinent to the new venture creation process. It identifies a set of facets from the entrepreneurial ecosystems – more specifically different types of organizational actors, their occupational backgrounds, and epistemic communities – that enable and constrain the process of new venture creation in a way that is typical for project-based organizing.
Originality/value
This study thus elaborates on how institutional settings enforce what has been called “projectification” in the process of new venture creation and discuss implications for start-up ecosystems.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Rolf Lundin and Stephan Manning and the participants of Sub-theme 43 Projects, Knowledge and Time at the 32nd EGOS Colloquium 2016 in Naples, Italy, as well as the reviewers and participants of the OMT division within the Academy of Management, Annual Meeting 2016 in Anaheim, USA for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper. This paper forms part of a special section “Exploring processual and critical avenues”.
This article forms part of a special section “Exploring processual and critical avenues at the crossroad of entrepreneurship and project management”, guest edited by Olivier Germain and Monique Aubry.
Citation
Auschra, C., Braun, T., Schmidt, T. and Sydow, J. (2019), "Patterns of project-based organizing in new venture creation: Projectification of an entrepreneurial ecosystem", International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, Vol. 12 No. 1, pp. 48-70. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJMPB-01-2018-0007
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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