Situating the Construct of Lean Startup: Adjacent 'Conversations' and Possible Future Directions

Levinthal, Daniel A.; Contigiani, Andrea

doi:10.2139/ssrn.3174799

Cited by 11 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…Nevertheless, we find some elements of the Lean Startup framework, such as the pivot, useful in our context. In this sense, the paper complements other efforts to critically incorporate practitioner ideas into the strategy literature (Levinthal & Contigiani, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 81%

The origins of firm strategy: Learning by economic experimentation and strategic pivots in the early automobile industry

Pillai

Goldfarb

Kirsch

2019

Strategic Management Journal

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Research Summary: We explore the effectiveness of economic experimentation as a learning mechanism through a historical exploration of the early automobile industry. We focus on a particular subset of economic experiments, called strategic pivots, that requires irreversible firm commitments. Our quantitative analysis suggests that strategic pivoting was associated with success. We then use historical methods to understand whether this association is reasonably interpreted as a causal link. We identify lessons that could only plausibly have been learned through strategic pivoting and document that those firms that were able to learn from the strategic pivots were most likely to succeed. We discuss the generalizability of our findings to build the hypothesis that strategic pivots and economic experiments originate firm strategy. Managerial Summary: We explore the effectiveness of experimentation as a learning mechanism through a historical exploration of the early automobile industry. We focus on a particular subset of experiments, called strategic pivots, that requires irreversible firm commitments. Our analysis suggests that strategic pivoting was associated with success.We identify lessons that could only plausibly be learned through strategic pivoting and document that those firms that were able to learn from the strategic pivots were most

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 81%

The origins of firm strategy: Learning by economic experimentation and strategic pivots in the early automobile industry

Pillai

Goldfarb

Kirsch

2019

Strategic Management Journal

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“…Specifically, managerial theories may provide higher-order direction to search efforts (Theme 3—“structural insights”) as well as enable sequencing (sequentially partitioning the problem and search across modules; Themes 2 and 4). Third, the practices for systematic experimentation and problem solving that have recently become popular (e.g., the lean startup or design thinking; Liedtka & Ogilvie, 2011; Martin, 2009; Ries, 2011) could be translated into simulation models in order to examine their effectiveness as well as their boundary conditions (see Levinthal & Contigiani, in press).…”

Section: Linking Simulations and Empirical Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effective Search in Rugged Performance Landscapes: A Review and Outlook

Baumann

Schmidt

Stieglitz

2018

Journal of Management

108

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The creation of novel strategies, the pursuit of entrepreneurial opportunities, and the development of new technologies, capabilities, products, or business models all involve solving complex problems that require making a large number of highly interdependent choices. The challenge that complex problems pose to boundedly rational managers—the need to find a high-performing combination of interdependent choices—is akin to identifying a high peak on a rugged performance “landscape” that managers must discover through sequential search. Building on the NK model that Levinthal introduced into the management literature in 1997, scholars have used simulation methods to construct performance landscapes and examine various aspects of effective search processes. We review this literature to identify common themes and mechanisms that may be relevant in different managerial contexts. Based on a systematic analysis of 71 simulation studies published in leading management journals since 1997, we identify six themes: learning modes, problem decomposition, cognitive representations, temporal dynamics, distributed search, and search under competition. We explain the mechanisms behind the results and map all of the simulation articles to the themes. In addition, we provide an overview of relevant empirical studies and discuss how empirical and formal work can be fruitfully combined. Our review is of particular relevance for scholars in strategy, entrepreneurship, or innovation who conduct empirical research and apply a process lens. More broadly, we argue that important insights can be gained by linking the notion of search in rugged performance landscapes to practitioner-oriented practices and frameworks, such as lean startup or design thinking.

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“…Some recent studies we surveyed point at the implicit though significant nexus linking LS with effectuation and bricolage (e.g. Frederiksen and Brem, 2017;Yang et al, 2018), though such claims were still unsystematic and scattered in the LS-related literature, as they are not found in other works aiming to disclose the LS antecedent: for instance, Levinthal and Contigiani (2018) do not consider these entrepreneurship theories as a theoretical root for the LS. Through this review, we reinforce the claim that explicitly linking effectuation and entrepreneurial bricolage with the LS will serve as a way to close the gap between theory and practice for business model experimenting and validation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…However, the work by Ries (2011), possibly due to its eminently practical approach and its focus on hands-on prescriptive advice, lacks a strong theoretical background (Frederiksen and Brem, 2017;Berglund et al, 2018;Levinthal and Contigiani, 2018;Ghezzi and Cavallo, 2018;Yang et al, 2018). Occasionally, the author cites sources of inspiration throughout the text or in notes, or makes suggestions for complementary reading, but avoids further analysis of the LS backgroundalthough Frederiksen and Brem (2017) conjectured that this background would probably not be unknown to Ries. In any case, such apparent lack of explicit grounding in previous scholarly tradition can be argued to be a reason for a somewhat lackluster reception of LS as a research theme among entrepreneurship academics.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lean Startup: a comprehensive historical review

et al. 2018

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Purpose The primary goal of a startup is to find a viable business model that can generate value for its customers while being effectively captured by the startup itself. This business model, however, is not easily defined, being a consequence of the application of tools involving trials, data analyses and testing. The Lean Startup (LS) methodology proposes a process for agile and iterative validation of business models. Given the popularity and importance of such methodology in professional circles, the purpose of this paper is to conduct a historical literature review of existing academic and professional literature, correlating LS concepts and activities to previous theory and alternative business model validation methods. Design/methodology/approach A historically oriented systematic literature review employing snowball sampling was conducted in order to identify academic and professional literature and references for iterative validation of business models. A total of 12 scholarly journals and professional magazines dealing with strategy, innovation, entrepreneurship, startups and management were used as data sources. The extensive literature review resulted in 963 exploratory readings and 118 papers fully analyzed. Findings The results position the LS as a practical-oriented and up-to-date implementation of strategies based on the Learning School of strategy making and the effectuation approach to entrepreneurship; the authors also identify a number of methods and tools that can complement the LS principles. Originality/value This paper identified and synthesized the scientific, academic and professional foundations that precede, support and complement the main concepts, processes and methods advocated by the LS methodology.

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Situating the Construct of Lean Startup: Adjacent 'Conversations' and Possible Future Directions

Cited by 11 publications

References 50 publications

The origins of firm strategy: Learning by economic experimentation and strategic pivots in the early automobile industry

The origins of firm strategy: Learning by economic experimentation and strategic pivots in the early automobile industry

Effective Search in Rugged Performance Landscapes: A Review and Outlook

Lean Startup: a comprehensive historical review

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