Knowable opportunities in an unknowable future? On the epistemological paradoxes of entrepreneurship theory

Ramoglou, Stratos

doi:10.1016/j.jbusvent.2020.106090

Cited by 69 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 87 publications

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“…We submit that it is not. Even if there are no unknowables about the key 'opportunity ingredient' (Ramoglou, 2021b) of consumer demand, there might still be several uncertainties about the reaction of nonmarket stakeholders. This is a nontrivial thesis.…”

Section: Taking Hostile Nonmarket Stakeholders Seriouslymentioning

confidence: 99%

Is There Opportunity Without Stakeholders? A Stakeholder Theory Critique and Development of Opportunity-Actualization

Ramoglou

Zyglidopoulos

Papadopoulou

2021

Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice

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How can stakeholder theory contribute to opportunity theory? We suggest that stakeholder theory affords appropriate theoretical lenses for grounding the opportunity-actualization perspective more firmly within the real-world constraints of business venturing. Actualization departs from a strong focus on entrepreneurial agency to conceptualize how pre-existing environmental conditions determine what entrepreneurial action can achieve. We explain that stakeholder theory can strengthen the outward-looking orientation of actualization by (1) bringing the entirety of stakeholders centre-stage, beyond a narrow focus on market stakeholders, and (2) stressing the importance of noneconomic considerations for the actualization of economic opportunities. Our theorization culminates in the concept of ‘strategic opportunity thinking’ (SOT). We conceptualize SOT as a way of protecting entrepreneurs from the blind-to-stakeholders mindset that either sleepwalks them into the territory of non-opportunity or prevents them from the actualization of real yet difficult-to-actualize opportunities in the absence of stakeholder-centric thinking.

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Section: Taking Hostile Nonmarket Stakeholders Seriouslymentioning

confidence: 99%

Is There Opportunity Without Stakeholders? A Stakeholder Theory Critique and Development of Opportunity-Actualization

Ramoglou

Zyglidopoulos

Papadopoulou

2021

Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice

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“…The study of future-making has recently gained prominence due to a growing recognition that imagined futures are a cornerstone for understanding the temporal dynamics of organization, strategy and entrepreneurship (Wenzel, Krämer, Koch, & Reckwitz, 2020). As the future is unknowable (Ramoglou, 2021), entrepreneurs, managers and workers cannot act solely by identifying optimal choices based on past statistical information (rationalism) or using explicit scripts, rules and norms (institutionalism) (Beckert & Bronk, 2018). Instead, they create and use imagined futures to attend to questions of possibility rather than epistemology (Gartner, Bird, & Starr, 1992; Riles, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Imagining Futures: Theorizing the Practical Knowledge of Future-making

Thompson

Byrne

2021

Organization Studies

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The study of future-making – how practitioners make and enact imagined futures – has become a cornerstone for understanding the temporal dynamics of organisation, strategy and entrepreneurship. This article investigates the texture of practical knowledge that enables entrepreneuring practitioners to jointly address the challenges inherent to future-making. We conduct a video ethnography of a business modelling programme producing 79 hours of audio-visual recordings. Using multimodal conversation analysis, we unpack different forms of practical knowledge that simultaneously binds practitioners in a web of mutual expectations and establishes modes of thinking and acting for the creation of imagined futures. This contributes to existing studies by demonstrating that the discursive, embodied and material dimensions of future-making are fundamentally entangled within textures of practical knowledge. Consequently, we shift the mode of theorizing towards non-representationalism, which opens up new frontiers for future research to observe, participate and reflect with practitioners on the textures of practical knowledge constitutive of future-making in different circumstances and contexts.

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“…Our empirical insights add nuance to the recent turn toward the complex interplay of the environmental conditions facilitating the actualization of desirable futures (Davidsson et al , 2020; Dimov, 2020). For example, how opportunity and luck may play for success (Kirzner, 1979, 2000) and how individuals can exploit an imaginable turn of (Feduzi et al , 2021; Ramoglou, 2021). This should be seen in balance with the entrepreneurs’ active agency to manage their careers, for example, by exposing themselves to diversity, following discipline and rigor, being creative and innovative (Garcia-Lorenzo et al , 2018; Ottenbacher and Harrington (2007).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Becoming top global chef: what does it take to become a highly successful entrepreneurial careerist?

Elbasha

Baruch

2022

IJCHM

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Purpose This study aims to understand the career path to the pinnacle of professional life. What does it take for an entrepreneur to become a global celebrity in one’s profession? The authors explore the career motivation, trajectory and outcomes of a niche population who made it to the top of their careers. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative method was applied, using publicly available, prerecorded interviews of a documentary series on a unique sample of 30 top global chefs who gain Michelin-stars or equivalent. The authors used a qualitative approach to analyze the data alternating data and theory. Findings The authors identify a unique pattern, which the authors label as the “two-steps” trajectory, where these successful chefs went through a dual-hurdle process: first, delving into formal training and establishing themselves; then moving to a top chef status through innovation inspired by their history, chance events and treating their work as an artistic oeuvre and an experience. Practical implications The authors provide an observed pattern for what is required to be a top global chef. Originality/value This study advances career theory and entrepreneurship studies via integrating the two perspectives. The authors offer a theoretical contribution by identifying the relevance and importance of “new careers” for entrepreneurs, recognizing critical success factors and reinstating the balance between the agency of the entrepreneur and their context.

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Knowable opportunities in an unknowable future? On the epistemological paradoxes of entrepreneurship theory

Cited by 69 publications

References 87 publications

Is There Opportunity Without Stakeholders? A Stakeholder Theory Critique and Development of Opportunity-Actualization

Is There Opportunity Without Stakeholders? A Stakeholder Theory Critique and Development of Opportunity-Actualization

Imagining Futures: Theorizing the Practical Knowledge of Future-making

Becoming top global chef: what does it take to become a highly successful entrepreneurial careerist?

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