Elin Kubberød, Viktorija Viciunaite and Siw M. Fosstenløkken
The purpose of this paper is to address the recent calls for an in-depth investigation of the entrepreneurial marketing (EM) practices of small businesses and a further conceptual…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to address the recent calls for an in-depth investigation of the entrepreneurial marketing (EM) practices of small businesses and a further conceptual development of EM under market uncertainty. Drawing on the EM mix (i.e. person, purpose, practices and process), the authors aim to conceptualise EM under market uncertainty through principles of effectual networking.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted an in-depth case study of an owner-manager who networks with many different stakeholders to create new markets for wool in the Norwegian wool industry.
Findings
Situated within the creative and craft-based industries, the study demonstrates that market uncertainty can be reduced through effectual networking to produce highly beneficial outcomes for small businesses. The findings give rise to a new model of the EM mix under uncertainty, emphasising the role of the owner-manager (i.e. person) and the purpose as the outset and driving force of the EM process. These two elements constitute the initial means in the means-driven EM process and the foundation for subsequent EM practices. The person, purpose and practices interact iteratively, and focal effectual networking principles guide EM practices.
Originality/value
This paper expands and contextualises existing theories on EM under market uncertainty by introducing the effectual networking perspective. This represents a hitherto under-investigated area of research in small business marketing.
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Elin Kubberød, Siw M. Fosstenløkken and Per Olav Erstad
The purpose of this paper is to explore the contributions of peer mentoring as a learning support for mentee students in higher entrepreneurship education.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the contributions of peer mentoring as a learning support for mentee students in higher entrepreneurship education.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper presents a single embedded case study focussing on mentee students’ perceptions of peer mentors’ support of their entrepreneurial learning during an experiential master’s course. Employing an abductive approach, the researchers conducted cross-sectional, thematic analyses of individual mentee interviews complemented by data from joint reflection sessions, reflection reports and observations during the course timeline.
Findings
The peer mentors contributed to the mentee students’ learning through various forms of support, which were categorised into mentor roles, mentor functions and intervention styles. The analysis found that peer mentors fulfil three coexisting roles: learning facilitator, supportive coach and familiar role model. These roles constitute the pillars of a typology of entrepreneurial peer mentoring.
Research limitations/implications
This study contributes theoretical and empirical insights on peer mentoring in entrepreneurship education. It represents a first benchmark of best practices for future studies.
Practical implications
The case study suggests that adding peer mentoring represents more efficient support for entrepreneurial learning than a teacher alone is able to provide. The typology can also be used for training peer mentors.
Originality/value
The researchers construct a new typology for entrepreneurial learning support, which contributes to theory development within the field of entrepreneurship education.
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This paper aims to raise the question of how end-user product innovation is developed by exploring the underlying learning mechanisms that drive such idea realization in practice…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to raise the question of how end-user product innovation is developed by exploring the underlying learning mechanisms that drive such idea realization in practice. A trialogical learning perspective from educational science is applied as an analytical approach to enlighten the black box of learning dynamics in user innovation (UI).
Design/methodology/approach
The field study of organizational ethnography is based on in situ observations of the testing and development phase of an adapted aid, an electro-mechanical device for completely hands-free dressing/undressing for people with no arm function.
Findings
The results suggest that UI materializes through what this researcher conceptualized as “circuits of learning” around shared objects that are collaboratively mediated and shaped in interplay between three forces identified as “user requirements”, “interdisciplinary co-creation” and “object transformation”.
Research limitations/implications
This in-depth study of UI realization has only started to open the research area of such practices. Further advancement is needed on users as inventors and learners. Cross-fertilization with other fields, such as pedagogy, and particularly branches of theory derived from a socio-material stance, seems fruitful.
Practical implications
To cultivate UI through “circuits of learning”, “users as learners” should pay attention to their shifting roles as teachers, co-learners and co-creators in interdisciplinary collaborative practices to enhance efficient work processes.
Originality/value
This study shows the relevance of bringing in learning as a crucial underpinning that contributes to enhancing our understanding of how user innovators create new products. The paper contributes to the UI literature by elaborating on the concept of “circuits of learning” as a novel framework of learning mechanisms within UI.
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This article expands literature on user innovation by exploring the mechanisms that support user innovations in the context of a public organisation. Research has hitherto…
Abstract
Purpose
This article expands literature on user innovation by exploring the mechanisms that support user innovations in the context of a public organisation. Research has hitherto documented support mechanisms for user innovation in producer companies, where users contribute in early or temporary innovation phases as external non-employees or lead-users engaged by the producer. Complementarily, this paper explores a lesser known area of support mechanisms, those that support internal user innovations in a public sector setting.
Design/methodology/approach
Employing a qualitative study of a Norwegian public hospital at the interface between users (personnel and patients) and organisational support (facilitators who orchestrate user innovations), this article analyses in-house user innovation based on observations, text documentation and interviews over a four-year period.
Findings
In this public hospital, holistic organisational facilitation of “public user innovators” formed the key support mechanism built on “people” (facilitating co-creation), “process” (facilitating ideas, project realisation and implementation) and “coordination” (facilitating systems and communication). The findings show that public and producer organisational mechanisms both resemble and differ in many respects, as illustrated by the framework developed to describe these characteristics, such as that producers insource users, while the public organisation outsources production.
Originality/value
The originality of the article lies in the identification and description of “public user innovation”, a new term developed from this study of a public organisation in contrast to the dominant literature on producer companies. This article contributes new insights by differentiating the roles of user innovators and the mechanisms that support such innovations. New implications are drawn from the public side of organisational support in user innovation research.