Sustaining entrepreneurial business: A complexity perspective on processes that produce emergent practice

Abstract

This article examines the management practices in an entrepreneurial small firm which sustain the business. Using a longitudinal qualitative case study, four general processes are identified (experimentation, reflexivity, organising and sensing), that together provide a mechanism to sustain the enterprise. The analysis draws on concepts from entrepreneurship and complexity science. We suggest that an entrepreneur's awareness of the role of these parallel processes will facilitate their approaches to sustaining and developing enterprises.We also suggest that these processes operate in parallel at multiple levels, including the self, the business and inter-firm networks. This finding contributes to a general theory of entrepreneurship. A number of areas for further research are discussed arising from this result. Key words:Entrepreneurship; complexity theory, emergence; sustainability 2 This article derives insights from complexity theory into the managerial processes that presaged the emergence of new business models and organisational structures in an established entrepreneurial small firm in the airline services industry. By means of an indepth qualitative case study, we identify four dynamic managerial processes (experimentation, reflexivity, organising and sensing), inherent in the everyday practice of the management team, and in particular the Managing Director as he made strategic choices to remain 'fit' in a fast-moving industry. Although this study is limited to one case, we conclude that the dynamic processes we have identified provide insight into the sustainability of entrepreneurial firms over time. Better understanding of these processes may support entrepreneurs and their stakeholders manage the sustainability of the firm.The paper commences with a discussion of the application of complexity theory to entrepreneurship. This is followed by the case study where we ground the theory in an empirical study of entrepreneurial practice: a longitudinal analysis of an entrepreneurial firm, FlightDirectors, which is sustained through the creation of a new business models and structures at critical junctures for the firm and the industry. Finally we present our conclusions as to the practical and theoretical implications of our study. In this we contribute to theory by proposing that the processes identified helps to explain the mechanism by which the agency of entrepreneurship produces (new) structures, as well as raising questions for further research.

The entrepreneurial journey as an emergent hierarchical system of artifact-creating processes

“…There has also been a recognition of the hierarchical structure of the entrepreneurial system (Fuller et al, 2008;Sarasvathy, 2003) and stages in transition phases associated with new patterns of emergence (Lichtenstein, 2000). Of particular interest for our present purposes is Lichtenstein and Kurjanowicz's (2010) conceptualization of the entrepreneurial journey in terms of 'phases of organizing' and 'degrees of emergence' associated with increasingly tangible emergent outcomes.…”

“…Specifically, we adopt a complexity science perspective (Fuller et al, 2008;Lichtenstein, 2011;McKelvey, 2004;Sarasvathy, 2003;Venkataraman et al, 2012) and conceptualize the entrepreneurial journey as an emergent, hierarchical and self-organized system (McKelvey, 2004;Simon, 1996). Complexity science encompasses a range of methodologies and frameworks focusing on aspects of emergence (see Lichtenstein, 2011: 475-8), including cybernetics (Weiner, 1948(Weiner, /1961, synergetics (Haken, 1977), system dynamics (Forrester, 1961), hierarchical complexity (Simon, 1962), chaos theory (May, 1976), dissipative structures theory (Prigogine and Stengers, 1984), complex adaptive systems (Holland, 1975) and co-evolutionary theory (McKelvey, 1999).…”

A Terminal Assessment of Stages Theory: Introducing a Dynamic States Approach to Entrepreneurship

“…This approach, along with others (cf. Fuller, Warren, & Argyle, 2008), may improve our understanding of sustainability in social entrepreneurship (Short, Moss, & Lumpkin, 2009) and "emancipatory entrepreneuring" (Rindova, Barry, & Ketchen, 2009). Thus, dynamic states may contribute to our understanding and enactment of "sustainability entrepreneuring" (Lichtenstein, 2009) within organizations (Epstein, 2008;Hart & Milstein;Hawken, 1993), throughout industries (Ehrenfeld, 2007), and system-wide (Senge, Lichtenstein, Kaeufer, Bradbury, & Carroll, 2007).…”

Creative Assemblages: Organisation and Outputs of Practice-Led Research

“…It was also argued that computational aesthetics could less broadly relate to the aesthetic questions that can be applied to computer art or generative art [3]. The latter is where the artwork is generated, at least in part, by some process that is not under the artist's direct control.…”