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The purpose of this paper is to provide a structured overview of the application of the configuration approach in the context of new and small ventures.

The paper surveys the empirical literature in the leading entrepreneurship journals from 1994 to 2006.

There are a small, but significant number of studies that deal with the empirical identification and examination of new venture types. However, researchers are just beginning to tap the potential of the configuration approach. More specifically, configuration analyses are still rather heterogeneous, and no study deals with the identification of development configuration in the context of new ventures yet.

Since the configuration approach has already delivered interesting results in research on new ventures, we might see additional studies based on this approach in the future. However, there are practical and theoretical considerations to be taken into account.

An awareness of the existence of different types of start‐ups can lead to more informed decisions in new venture management.

This literature review identifies and structures empirical configuration research in the context of new and small ventures. Also, awareness for future research opportunities is raised.

The aim of this paper is to structure and synthesize the existing scholarly works in the young and emerging field of “strategic entrepreneurship” (SE) as well as to develop a theoretical model, thereby contributing to further theory‐building.

As the results of a review of extant literature, four different elementary domains conceptualizing SE on the basis of the configuration approach could be identified: the strategy, the entrepreneur, the environment and the structure and resources of the firm.

The SE model contributes to the understanding of how firms can create value. It has been shown beforehand that the configuration approach is suitable for strategic management as well as for entrepreneurship in the sense of new venture creation and arguably can be transferred to the larger level of SME strategy as well.

With the four dimensions of SE, this paper has so far only been able to deliver a starting point for further research which (empirically) investigates their interplay and attempts to derive “optimal configurations” of the dimensions, e.g. with regard to different firm sizes and environmental conditions. This empirical part is still outstanding.

The major managerial implication of the SE approach is the possibility to develop more entrepreneurial and innovative thinking, especially in SMEs and young ventures. This stands in contrast with classical strategic management approaches, which characteristically emphasize administrative management and focus on day‐to‐day business.

This paper is the first to model SE by using the configuration approach, thereby providing a solid theoretical foundation for future empirical research.

The purpose of this paper is to lay the foundations for new ways of management and personality development by using the same way Peter Drucker developed his ideas. What was this “teaching philosophy”? Where else can it be found? Which learning phenomena are typical for this way of teaching? Can this “teaching philosophy” be replicated? Can it be applied to management in general?

The historical genetic method developed by Ernst Mach from the historical‐critical method. Using this approach the paper traces the origin of Drucker's central ideas for management in his early learning experiences. It then asks the question, in how far can these central ideas be generalized and used to develop the central ideas of Drucker (including the intuitive ones) further? The question is genetically left open, i.e. it is continually transformative.

Drucker was heavily influenced in his way of thinking by his education at a special school in Vienna. The school was organized by Eugenie Schwarzwald. Many of Drucker's ideas on personality development and his intuitive theories on psychology and learning can be traced back to that time. What was especially important for Drucker's later works was the “teaching philosophy” taught by Schwarzwald's teachers.

There is a direct link between the science teaching results for Finland in the OECD PISA study and Drucker's way of thinking. Drucker acquired an exponential way of learning, instead of a learning based on a linear model. This is what made his thoughts so challenging and ahead of his contemporaries. As the example of Finland shows, this is not a light‐tower method (i.e. a singular phenomenon without empirical evidence of its reproducibility). One can use these ideas in general for all of education and it has been used in over a dozen cases at different around the world times. It is especially valuable in management education of knowledge workers. In such a way, one can create a much more efficient and effective way of education, an “education 2.0”.

This is the first time that Drucker's ideas can be linked to the ideas of Ernst Mach and to similar types of education based on ideas of Mach, such as used in Finland. The empirical results of such methods can therefore not only be found in Drucker's autobiography as a single case, but they can be compared in much more general contexts, for instance in the large‐scale field study OECD PISA study or in Hattie's educational meta‐meta analysis.