Coping with uncertainty: entrepreneurial sensemaking in regenerative medicine venturing

Abstract

Entrepreneurs face multiple sources and types of uncertainty during venturing activity.Converting novel or speculative opportunities into viable commercial businesses requires entrepreneurs to address or even leverage uncertainty. This process is especially relevant in nascent, knowledge-intensive fields, where success likely hinges on acquisition and deployment of unique, specialized knowledge resources. Venture development will be partly determined by the sensemaking strategies entrepreneurs employ to cope with irreducible uncertainty, especially as they seek critical collaborations. The regenerative medicine (RM) sector represents a unique context for studying entrepreneurial sensemaking under high levels of uncertainty. We consider how uncertainty in RM venturing affects entrepreneurial behavior. Informed by long-form narrative interviews, we propose a sensemaking model linking uncertainty, university culture, coping and narratives of venture potential in the RM field. This helps explain how participants in the RM sector cope with uncertainty and explore knowledge partnerships. Our findings advance theories of entrepreneurial sensemaking and the impact on nascent entrepreneurial ecosystems.

Entrepreneurial opportunity decisions under uncertainty: Recognizing the complementing role of personality traits and cognitive skills

“…Tacit awareness connects to the uncertain / Entrepreneurial opportunity decisions under uncertainty: Recognizing the complementing role of personality traits and cognitive skills external environment and induces a construct for schemata, alertness, and meaningful patterns for the recognition of opportunities (McMullen & Shepherd, 2006;Kirzner, 2009). Johnson and Bock (2017) demonstrate that the formation of tacit knowledge over time results from accumulated prior knowledge, which becomes valuable to the entrepreneur in making sense of the uncertainty in the environment. Prior studies, including Khatri and Ng (2000), and Baron and Ensley (2006), also conclude that entrepreneurs who employ tacit knowledge are "mentally richer" in identifying and further deciding on opportunities, whereas novice entrepreneurs may be denied those opportunities under uncertainty.…”

Entrepreneurial opportunity decisions under uncertainty: Recognizing the complementing role of personality traits and cognitive skills

“…Recognizing the complementing role of personality traits and cognitive skills external environment and induces a construct for schemata, alertness, and meaningful patterns for the recognition of opportunities (McMullen & Shepherd, 2006;Kirzner, 2009). Johnson and Bock (2017) demonstrate that the formation of tacit knowledge over time results from accumulated prior knowledge, which becomes valuable to the entrepreneur in making sense of the uncertainty in the environment. Prior studies, including Khatri and Ng (2000), and Baron and Ensley (2006), also conclude that entrepreneurs who employ tacit knowledge are "mentally richer" in identifying and further deciding on opportunities, whereas novice entrepreneurs may be denied those opportunities under uncertainty.…”

Entrepreneurial opportunity decisions under uncertainty: Recognizing the complementing role of personality traits and cognitive skills

“…Tacit awareness connects to the uncertain external environment and induces a construct for schemata, alertness and meaningful patterns for the recognition of opportunities (McMullen and Shepherd, 2006;Kirzner, 2009). Johnson & Bock (2017) demonstrates that the formation of tacit knowledge over time result from accumulated prior knowledge which becomes valuable to the entrepreneur in making sense of the uncertainty in the environment. Prior studies including Kahtri and Ng (2000), Harteis and Gruber (2008) and (Baron & Ensley, 2006) also conclude that entrepreneurs who employ tacit knowledge are "mentally richer" in identifying and further deciding on opportunities whereas novice entrepreneurs may be denied those opportunities under uncertainty.…”