Richard Hunt and Lauren Ortiz-Hunt
The purpose of this paper is to develop and empirically test the theory that new industry entrants hold advantages over incumbents in the shift from unidirectional to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop and empirically test the theory that new industry entrants hold advantages over incumbents in the shift from unidirectional to multi-directional revenue streams.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a Cobb-Douglas production function, modified to isolate returns to innovation, the authors examine data from three separate contexts: steamships on Western US rivers (1810-1860), satellite-based internet services (1962-2010) and food waste recycling (1995-2015).
Findings
The results reveal that while incumbents often attempt to stretch existing technologies to fit emerging circumstances, entrepreneurial innovators achieve greater success by approaching multi-directional value creation as a distinct challenge, one requiring new technologies, organizational forms and business models. Existing theories have primarily attributed incumb ent inertia to a firm’s inability perceive and pursue radical innovations, the results also suggest that existing firms are unwilling to pursue innovations that are likely to erode the marginal profitability of their respective business models. Ironically, rather than protecting incumbents’ financial interests, the authors find that “marginal reasoning” can lead to diminished performance and even extinction.
Research limitations/implications
The proposed framework and empirical findings have implications for numerous multi-directional frontiers, including: social networking, commercial space travel, distance education and medical treatments using nanoscale technologies.
Practical implications
While incumbents often lament the destabilizing effects of multi-directionality, new and small firms enjoy a compelling array of entry points and opportunities.
Originality/value
Scholars, incumbent firms and start-ups both benefit from insights stemming from the novel formulation of multi-directionality challenges and opportunities.
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One of the crucial questions confronting strategy and entrepreneurship scholars continues to be: where do new industry sectors come from? Extant literature suffers from a…
Abstract
Purpose
One of the crucial questions confronting strategy and entrepreneurship scholars continues to be: where do new industry sectors come from? Extant literature suffers from a supply-side “skew” that focuses unduly on the role of heroic figures and celebrity CEOs, at the expense of demand-side considerations. In response, the purpose of this paper is to examine societal demand for entrepreneurial innovations. Employing historical data spanning nearly a century, the author assess more completely the role of latent demand-side signaling in driving the quantity and diversity of entrepreneurial innovation.
Design/methodology/approach
Applying the methods of historical econometrics, this study employs historical artifacts and cliometric models to analyze textual data in drawn from three distinctive sources: Popular Science Monthly magazine, from its founding in 1872 to 1969; periodicals, newsletters, club minutes, films and radio transcripts from the Science Society, from 1921 to 1969; and programs and news accounts from the US National High School Science Fair, from 1950 to 1969. In total, 2,084 documents containing 33,720 articles and advertisements were coded for content related to pure science, applied science and commercialized science.
Findings
Three key findings are revealed: vast opportunity spaces often exist prior to being occupied by individuals and firms; societal preferences play a vital role in determining the quantity and diversity of entrepreneurial activity; and entrepreneurs who are responsive to latent demand-side signals are likely to experience greater commercial success.
Research limitations/implications
This study intentionally draws data from three markedly different textual sources. The painstaking process of triangulation reveals heretofore unobserved latencies that invite fresh perspectives on innovation discovery and diffusion.
Originality/value
This paper constitutes the most panoramic investigation to-date of the influence wielded by latent demand-side forces in the discovery and commercialization of innovation.
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Sid Hanna Saleh and Richard A. Hunt
When entrepreneurs create new ventures, they struggle with making consequential decisions under severe restrictions such as tight deadlines, limited resources, and lack of…
Abstract
When entrepreneurs create new ventures, they struggle with making consequential decisions under severe restrictions such as tight deadlines, limited resources, and lack of information. Making challenging decisions inherently requires creativity as entrepreneurs improvise and work around the limitations they face. Under these conditions, entrepreneurs resort to their heuristics and biases instead of rational decision models. Entrepreneurs employ – sometimes for better and sometimes for worse – a myriad of rule-setting heuristics and experience-based biases to navigate the difficult path between novelty and utility. In this chapter, the authors answer Shepherd, Williams, and Patzelt’s (2015) call for research into how entrepreneurs leverage heuristics and biases in decision-making and the benefits they gain as a result. The authors explore how entrepreneurs introduce heuristics and biases at different stages of their decision-making process using a qualitative study of 21 new ventures. The results attest to entrepreneurs’ ingenuity and creativity in managing complexity, ambiguity, and uncertainty.
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Existing theories of innovation posit a split between incremental innovations produced by large incumbents and radical innovations produced by entrepreneurial start‐ups. The…
Abstract
Purpose
Existing theories of innovation posit a split between incremental innovations produced by large incumbents and radical innovations produced by entrepreneurial start‐ups. The purpose of this paper is to present empirical evidence challenging this foundational assumption by demonstrating that entrepreneurs play a leading role, not a subordinate role, in sourcing incremental innovations through secondary inventions and design modifications.
Design/methodology/approach
Applying the methods of historical econometrics, this study draws parallels between two dramatically different contexts: the mechanized reaper (1803‐1884) and cloud computing services (1961‐2011). Data for the reaper were drawn from 517 historical sources involving 348 modifications. Data for cloud computing services were drawn from 3,882 US patent filings and firm‐level data drawn from the Dun & Bradstreet database.
Findings
Entrepreneurial tweaking plays a central role in commercializing dominant designs. Among the highest‐ranked incremental innovations leading to the commercialization of the reaper and cloud computing, nearly 90 percent were attributable to entrepreneurs. And yet, an entrepreneur had only a one in fourteen chance of garnering returns from a reaper innovation and a one in nine chance of gains from a cloud computing improvement.
Practical implications
Incremental innovations by entrepreneurs are indispensable to the widespread commercial acceptance of new technologies. Yet, entrepreneurial tweakers rarely benefit from the significant value they have created.
Originality/value
This paper constitutes the first significant attempt to empirically address the central role of entrepreneurs in producing incremental innovations that result in the commercialization of radical breakthroughs.
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Barrie O. Pettman and Richard Dobbins
This issue is a selected bibliography covering the subject of leadership.
Abstract
This issue is a selected bibliography covering the subject of leadership.
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Adam Waytz and Vasilia Kilibarda
In 2011, Sherry Hunt was a vice president and chief underwriter at CitiMortgage headquarters in the United States. For years she had been witnessing fraud, as the company bought…
Abstract
In 2011, Sherry Hunt was a vice president and chief underwriter at CitiMortgage headquarters in the United States. For years she had been witnessing fraud, as the company bought billions of dollars in mortgage loans from external lenders that did not meet Citi credit policy and sold them to government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs). This resulted in Citi selling to GSEs such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pools of loans that were considerably defective and thus likely to default. Citi had also approved hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of defective mortgage files for U.S. Federal Housing Administration insurance. After reporting the mortgage defects in regular reports, notifying and working closely with her direct supervisor (who was subsequently asked to leave Citi after alerting the chairman of the board to these issues) to stop the purchase of defective loans, leaving anonymous tips on the FBI's and the Department of Housing and Urban Development's websites, and receiving threats from two of her superiors who demanded that she change the results of her quality control unit's reports, the shy and conflict-avoidant Hunt had to decide who she should tell about the fraud, and how.
The case gives students the opportunity to recommend how Hunt should proceed based on their analysis of the stakeholders involved. To aid instructors, the case includes Kellogg-produced videos of Hunt—the only on-camera interviews she has ever given—explaining what happened after she reported the fraud to Citi HR and, later, the U.S. Department of Justice. Within the case, students are also briefly exposed to legislation and bodies pertinent to whistle-blowing in the United States, including the Dodd-Frank Act, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and the SEC Office of the Whistleblower.
This case won the 2014 competition for Outstanding Case on Anti-Corruption, supported by the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME), an initiative of the UN Global Compact.
Analyze stakeholders' motivations to prepare counter-arguments to the resistance one might encounter when reporting unethical behavior
Write a script for who to tell, how, and why
Discuss how incentive structures, management, and culture play roles in promoting or hindering ethical behavior in organizations
Identify behaviors that help a whistle-blower be effective
Gain experience resolving ethical dilemmas in which two values may conflict, such as professional duty and personal ethics
Analyze stakeholders' motivations to prepare counter-arguments to the resistance one might encounter when reporting unethical behavior
Write a script for who to tell, how, and why
Discuss how incentive structures, management, and culture play roles in promoting or hindering ethical behavior in organizations
Identify behaviors that help a whistle-blower be effective
Gain experience resolving ethical dilemmas in which two values may conflict, such as professional duty and personal ethics
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The purpose of this paper is to provide a retrospection on the importance, origins and development of the research programs in the author’s career.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide a retrospection on the importance, origins and development of the research programs in the author’s career.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses an autobiographical approach.
Findings
Most of the articles, research monographs and books that constitute this research and publishing efforts can be categorized into seven distinct, but related, research programs: channels of distribution; marketing theory; marketing’s philosophy debates; macromarketing and ethics; relationship marketing; resource-advantage theory; and marketing management and strategy. The value system that has guided these research programs has been shaped by specific events that took place in the author’s formative years. This essay chronicles these events and the origins and development of the seven research programs.
Originality/value
Chronicling the importance, origins and development of the seven research programs will hopefully motivate and assist other scholars in developing their own research programs.
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A recently published survey found that slightly over 14 million persons age 16 or over hunted in the United States in 1991 and spent over $12 billion on hunting. By comparison…
Abstract
A recently published survey found that slightly over 14 million persons age 16 or over hunted in the United States in 1991 and spent over $12 billion on hunting. By comparison, the same survey determined there are over 35 million anglers. Another source estimates that nearly 18 million participants age seven and older hunted with firearms in 1992. That ranks hunting well below the participatory sports of swimming, bicycling, and bowling in popularity, but ahead of football, skiing, tennis, and target shooting. Estimates vary, and while these numbers are substantial, they indicate that hunters comprise well under ten percent of the total U.S. population. Hunters have come under increasing fire from animal rightists and others who claim the sport is cruel and unnecessary. Hundreds of articles and a number of books have been written in recent years on both sides of the issue, or, more accurately, all sides. Many writers as well as the population at large see hunting as not entirely “good” or “bad” but some of each, depending upon the context.