Many are Called, but Few are Chosen: An Evolutionary Perspective for the Study of Entrepreneurship

The death of firms: exploring the effects of environment and birth cohort on firm survival in Sweden

“…Therefore an integration of research levels-and of context and process-is by many considered as a major challenge. The relationship between micro and macro events and conditions has been identified as fundamental for advances in the area of entrepreneurship and small business (Aldrich and Martinez 2001;Davidsson and Henrekson 2002) as well as to combine different approaches in order to make both empirical and theoretical progression (see for instance Shane 2003, andEliasson 2005). Unfortunately, and contrary to identified needs, it seems as the share of studies with a micro-to-macro approach has stagnated while there in fact have been an increase of micro-oriented research (Davidsson and Wiklund 2001).…”

“…1 Even so, the opposite relationship in which the environment affects and constrains the individual business is a less investigated area. The macro-environmental problem, and the links between micro and macro processes and events, is therefore considered to be important for the development of the research area (Boeri and Bellmann 1995;Tveterås and Eide 2000;Aldrich and Martinez 2001).…”

Does venture opportunity variation matter? Investigating systematic process differences between innovative and imitative new ventures

“…By entering this unexploited arena, enterprising actors take the competition to a new arena, in which they hope to gain first mover advantage and some basis for a sustainable competitive advantage (Kirzner 1985;Schumpeter 1934). In this product-market arena routines and competencies vary significantly from existing organizations (Picot et al, 1989, in Aldrich andMartinez 2001). There is no direct competition (Aldrich and Martinez 2001), and customer reaction is highly uncertain (Utterback 1994).…”

“…That is, optimizing change in supply and demand is important from a societal perspective, because ventures' created on the basis of reproducing venture ideas increase competition and the competitive disciplining of industries (Scherer and Ross 1990). Optimizing change in supply and demand alters the underlying assumptions upon which production decision have been made, resulting in market inefficiencies, in which, actors can perceive temporal and spatial inefficiencies, if recognized, originates imitative venture initiatives (Aldrich and Kenworthy 1999;Aldrich and Martinez 2001;Kirzner 1973). Imitative venture ideas are associated with routines and competencies that vary only marginally from those of existing, similar ventures (Aldrich and Kenworthy 1999;Aldrich and Martinez 2001).…”

“…In this product-market arena routines and competencies vary significantly from existing organizations (Picot et al, 1989, in Aldrich andMartinez 2001). There is no direct competition (Aldrich and Martinez 2001), and customer reaction is highly uncertain (Utterback 1994). Design, production, and distribution are likely to require skills and resources very different from those used to provide the closest substitute products and services (Utterback 1994).…”