Bruce Teague, Richard Tunstall, Claire Champenois and William B. Gartner
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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Richard Tunstall, Lenita Nieminen, Lin Jing and Rasmus Hjorth
Educators are increasingly required to develop creativity and entrepreneurial capabilities amongst students, yet within the fields of entrepreneurship and innovation these are…
Abstract
Purpose
Educators are increasingly required to develop creativity and entrepreneurial capabilities amongst students, yet within the fields of entrepreneurship and innovation these are presented as separate processes. We explore the theoretical and conceptual similarities and differences between these processes, and relate this to a range of experiential and digitally enhanced learning activities in formal education settings.
Methodology/approach
We present a conceptual model of the iterative nature of creativity and entrepreneurship as separate cognitive and social processes leading to aesthetic or sense-making outcomes. This leads to a discussion of how these processes may be experienced by students within an educational setting.
Findings
We propose a framework of learning activities which support the development of creativity through teaching entrepreneurially, at primary, secondary, and tertiary education levels. A range of different approaches is critically evaluated according to their relevance, including business planning, simulations, roleplay, co-creation, and flashmobs. Flashmobs are proposed to be most suitable and an outline learning activity design is mapped in detail against creative and entrepreneurial processes.
Research and Practical implications
This chapter supports educational practice and research on learning through entrepreneurship in allowing educators and researchers to evaluate how learning activities may directly contribute to students’ learning through experience and the development of their creative and entrepreneurial mind-set.
Originality/value
This chapter is of value to educators as it explains how creative and entrepreneurial processes may be experienced by students through different forms of learning activity. It is of further value to research on entrepreneurial learning in considering how the creative process may inform entrepreneurial action.
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Richard Tunstall and Martin Lynch
This paper aims to explore the role of electronic simulation case studies in enterprise education, their effectiveness, and their relationship to traditional forms of…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the role of electronic simulation case studies in enterprise education, their effectiveness, and their relationship to traditional forms of classroom‐based approaches to experiential learning. The paper seeks to build on previous work within the field of enterprise and management education, specifically in relation to the role of simulations and case studies in higher‐education pedagogy, which have previously been considered as distinct techniques.
Design/methodology/approach
Following the use of a specifically designed simulation case study of a small and large business, 57 undergraduate students in a UK university were surveyed using an electronic voting tool and their responses used as the basis for two focus groups, which were conducted with the same students.
Findings
Students saw a link between using the application and learning, found the environment to be immersive and more engaging than a text‐based case study, though opinion was divided over its entertainment value. Focus group results highlighted that students believed the environment felt “real” and that students were encouraged to engage in deep and double‐loop learning. Students preferred the option of a mixed range of classroom learning experiences, though experienced gameplayers were less likely to find the simulation case entertaining than non‐gameplayers.
Research limitations/implications
This article builds on existing research on simulations and case studies, while going some way to show the common issues that these “models of reality” share, in terms of both design and utilisation in the special context of higher education. This paper highlights the value and need for further work appraising emerging educational media and the importance students place on these experiences in their study programmes.
Originality/value
Given the increasing interest in e‐learning within higher education, and subsequent attempts to improve the student experience through electronic media, this paper highlights the importance of focusing on effective learning opportunities in developing experiential enterprise education tools.
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Paul Clargo and Richard Tunstall
This paper analyses entrepreneurial activity within existing organisations. Research tends to limit entrepreneurial behaviour to owner‐managers, corporate senior and middle…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper analyses entrepreneurial activity within existing organisations. Research tends to limit entrepreneurial behaviour to owner‐managers, corporate senior and middle managers and frequently presents intrapreneurship as a positive phenomenon. This paper seeks to broaden the focus of studies of intrapreneurship and corporate entrepreneurship across all employees in established organisations. In particular it seeks to focus on identifying the entrepreneurial propensity of employees at all levels of the organisation and to consider the positive and negative potential of this propensity on the organisation.
Design/methodology/approach
A single case study approach was used involving the analysis of focus groups, employee surveys, company history and financial data to identify the entrepreneurial propensity of employees in the context of an established organisation.
Findings
It is identified that employees within the sales function of the business had a greater entrepreneurial propensity in comparison to employees in other departments of the business. It is argued that this was due to a less formal structure in this part of the business and a greater focus on successfully achieving goals. It is further argued that organisational structures, opportunity and needs have to meet individual skills, experience and desire in order to create development opportunities for entrepreneurial organisations.
Research limitations/implications
It is suggested that in considering intrapreneurship, researchers should broaden their focus to include all employees within an organisation.
Practical implications
It is suggested that senior managers should consider the role of entrepreneurial propensity amongst employees and the potential for this to either harm or help develop the business.
Originality/value
This paper adds value to the debate on corporate entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship by considering the role of employees at all organisational levels. Furthermore it acknowledges the positive and negative effects which entrepreneurial propensity may have on the organisation.