Tadeu F. Nogueira, Tommy H. Clausen and Andrew C. Corbett
Prior research has theorised that entrepreneurs use deliberate practice (DP) in the start-up process to improve their competences and achieve new venture success. However, does DP…
Abstract
Purpose
Prior research has theorised that entrepreneurs use deliberate practice (DP) in the start-up process to improve their competences and achieve new venture success. However, does DP truly lead to an increase in entrepreneurial expertise? This article advances the understanding of DP for entrepreneurship scholars by answering the following question: to what extent does DP influence the formation of entrepreneurial expertise amongst business founders?
Design/methodology/approach
The study employs a sample of founders of limited-liability firms. Data were collected mainly through a web-based survey designed specifically for this research. Regression analysis was used to investigate the relationship between DP and entrepreneurial expertise amongst business founders.
Findings
The results show that DP is positively associated with entrepreneurial expertise, which provides us with an improved understanding of DP and expertise in the entrepreneurship context.
Originality/value
The article offers empirical evidence linking DP to the achievement of entrepreneurial expertise. Further, the article emphasises DP as key to experiential learning, representing a predominant mode by which entrepreneurs’ experiences are transformed into expertise. Finally, the article highlights the important role of learning through DP in opportunity development.
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Andrew Corbett, Rob Mitchell, Lois Marie Shelton and Matthew Wood
Richard Tunstall, Luke Pittaway, Deryck J. Van Rensburg and Andrew C. Corbett
Internal corporate venturing is a vehicle for firms to realize strategic and financial goals through entrepreneurial ventures. Prior research presents a strategic process in which…
Abstract
Purpose
Internal corporate venturing is a vehicle for firms to realize strategic and financial goals through entrepreneurial ventures. Prior research presents a strategic process in which individual managers make rational choices based on their formal roles and top-down corporate objectives. Recent work has challenged this by adopting a relational approach using a macro-level perspective highlighting cultural and institutional logics. This study augments and develops this relational approach by contributing a micro-level perspective by focusing on managers engaged in developing ventures in large organizations. The data show how internal corporate venturing (ICV) actors use discursive practices to make sense of their relationship contexts and develop interpretive repertoires to give sense to their decisions and shape their future strategies. The data illustrate how corporate venturing actors make sense of their uncertain experience and develop insider-outsider strategies by balancing three competing interpretive repertories, which form the basis of strategies supporting an entrepreneurial future in an organizational context.
Design/methodology/approach
Forty-two interviews were conducted with ICV actors, including senior directors of corporate venturing units in multinational corporations and their venture project leaders. The authors conducted a micro-level study through an interpretive sensemaking analysis of managers' “talk.” Interviews are considered through three lenses: “functional talk” (why they said it), “interpretive themes” (what they said) and “interpretive repertoires” (how they said it).
Findings
The perceived challenges experienced by the participants through their relationships were identified. Participants emphasized balancing project and organizational role risk in pursuing venture development, leading to a perceived dependent trust relationship between supporters. Three interpretive repertories were identified through which participants positioned their explanations of their relationship contexts in ICV. Participants used these to discursively frame their corporate venturing practices and position their future strategies.
Originality/value
A new framework of corporate venture sensemaking and sensegiving reconfiguration is provided to explain how managers discursively resolve conflicting relationship pressures while maintaining personal positioning. The paper shows how conflicting interpretive repertoires and personal interpretations are generated through a discursive practice comprising sensemaking and sensegiving reconfiguration processes to shape their future strategies. The paper contributes to theory by explicating the relational perspective of ICV at the micro-level and demonstrates how this is influenced by the discursive practices of managers leading the ICV activity.
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The history of the field of entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurship program at Saint Louis University is discussed, along with the descriptions of the Gateways to…
Abstract
The history of the field of entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurship program at Saint Louis University is discussed, along with the descriptions of the Gateways to Entrepreneurship Conferences and the creation of the Advances in Entrepreneurship, Firm Emergence, and Growth (AEFEG) series given in relation to those national- and campus-level contexts. The growth and development of the AEFEG series is discussed and the editorial contributors are noted, which could be of use to those interested in editorial roles and processes. Based on these elements, the chapter concludes with observations on the field of entrepreneurship and some ideas about its future.