Navigating the promises and perils of researching emerging phenomena in strategy and organizations

O’Mahony, Siobhán; Cohen, Susan L.

doi:10.1177/14761270221122394

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…For instance, it may be higher‐status accelerators foster their own ecosystems of newer (and lower status) investors. Overall, we believe this research highlights the value of revisiting classic theories in novel settings (O'Mahony & Cohen, 2022).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 61%

Are seed accelerators status springboards for startups? Or sand traps?

Hallen

Cohen

Park

2023

Strategic Management Journal

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Recent research finds participating in seed accelerators can improve startups' access to growth and funding, but effects are highly heterogeneous. Less understood is whether accelerator participation can also help startups obtain higher-status early partners. On one hand, participation may improve startups' quality and signal quality to desirable partners. Yet research suggests reasons any signaling effects might be quite small or even negative, since accelerators might be perceived as a "market for lemons."Using two complementary and proprietary datasets of U.S. startups, we find many seed accelerators are indeed springboards-associated with startups raising from higher-status investors-but that others have very limited and some slight negative effects. We examine contingencies and mechanisms, and conclude with contributions to literatures on accelerators and organizational status. Managerial Summary: Recent research has found that some seed accelerators help startups' grow and raise funds. In this research, we examine whether accelerators also help startups gain higher-status investors, which are desirable for the advice, signals, and networks they offer. Yet there are conflicting reasons why accelerators may help or hurt startups in obtaining higher-status investors. Using two proprietary datasets of U.S. startups, our results suggest many accelerators like Techstars and Y Combinator have notable benefits in helping startups raise from higher-status investors.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 61%

Are seed accelerators status springboards for startups? Or sand traps?

Hallen

Cohen

Park

2023

Strategic Management Journal

Self Cite

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“…Many novel advancements in organizational research come from studies in unconventional or unusual contexts (Bamberger & Pratt, 2010; O’Mahony & Cohen, 2022; Rogers et al, 2015) but the journey from collection, to analysis, and publication of findings in these studies is often replete with steep learning curves. Because I was focused on leveraging the “culture of the setting to account for observed patterns of human activity [including] the various forms in which people manage to do things together in observable and repeated ways” (Van Maanen, 1979, p. 539), I chose ethnographic methods.…”

Section: Lessons Learned About Data Collection From Anonymousmentioning

confidence: 99%

Honing the Craft of Qualitative Data Collection in Extreme Contexts

Sharma,

Toubiana,

Lashley

et al. 2023

Journal of Management Inquiry

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Over the past several years, there has been ongoing dialog within our academic journals and the profession regarding the value of examining extreme, unconventional, or unsettling contexts in management research. These conversations have highlighted that perhaps more than ever, we as a society are facing unprecedented grand and perplexing challenges, and conducting research in unconventional or extreme settings can reveal complex dynamics or relationships that we may not understand otherwise. Less discussed, however, are methodological considerations for conducting research in unique contexts. As such, we aim to extend the explicit discussion of effective strategies for scholars who consider the perspectives and workplace realities of unusual or unconventional populations. We bring together a collection of reflective essays rooted in the authors’ experiences of collecting data from extreme contexts or unusual samples. We highlight how these rich experiences in the field required the authors to modify or extend methodological conventions with the goal of guiding scholars pursuing research in similarly unconventional contexts.

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“…This is all highly stimulating and certain to encourage scholars to launch new research programs that can address those issues. The final essay by Siobhan O’Mahony and Susan Cohen (2022) does, however, place some of this enthusiasm in perspective by considering the promise and perils of studying hot topics. They note that investing in emerging topic areas can be rewarding, but also challenging as concepts tend to be fluid and undefined, with many competing perspectives as bandwagons can wax and wane, leaving readers skeptical and confused.…”

Section: Contributions To the Anniversary Issuementioning

confidence: 99%

SO! Far, SO! Good: Strategic Organization at 20

Alexy¹,

Berchicci²,

Dowell³

et al. 2022

Strategic Organization

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By their own account, Joel Baum, Royston Greenwood, and Dev Jennings (Baum et al., 2022) founded Strategic Organization 20 years ago to counter what they saw as a disturbing trend. Namely, they perceived that scholarship on strategy and scholarship on organization were becoming increasingly separate, leading to distinct journals, professional associations, and research agendas underpinned by different disciplines (economics vs sociology), and differentially dominant in different areas of the world. Believing that this increasing differentiation might lead to impoverished understanding of important phenomena, Strategic Organization's founding mission was to support convergence at the intersection of strategy and organization, bridging disciplines, methods, perspectives, and geographies.Since then, although Strategic Organization has grown and evolved, it has remained faithful to its founding mission as reflected in the content of regular issues, in the mix of intellectual backgrounds of our editors and editorial board, and in our special issue themes that inhabit and enrich the intersection between strategy and organization theory. These themes include, for example, "Strategic responses to institutional complexity" (Vermeulen et al., 2016); "Firms, crowds and innovation" (Felin et al., 2017); "Exploring the strategy-identity nexus" (Ravasi et al., 2020); "Temporal work: The strategic organization of time" (Bansal et al., 2022); "Categories and place: Identities, materiality and movements" (forthcoming) (David et al., 2020); "Research frontiers on the attention-based view of the firm" (forthcoming) (Ocasio et al., 2021); and "Impact driven strategy research for grand challenges" (deadline for submissions 30 November 2022) (Williams et al., 2022).The So!apbox Essay format is another long-standing tradition at Strategic Organization, launched in 2003 by the founding editors who described the format in their opening editorial as follows:A soapbox is a platform used by a self-appointed, spontaneous, or informal orator, or, more broadly, an outlet for delivering opinions. These editorial essays provide a forum in which interdisciplinary bridges can be built, methodological traditions discussed, and the field of strategic organization staked out. (Baum et al., 2003: 7) So!apbox essays have become a little longer over time (the word limit has shifted from 2500 to 6000 words), and varied in their orientation-some more phenomenon-oriented, some more theoretical, and some methodological-but they have tracked the field, continuously debating concepts, ideas, methods, and issues at the intersection of strategy and organization. Some have been collected together in So!apbox Debates around themes such as dynamic capabilities (2009), the

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Navigating the promises and perils of researching emerging phenomena in strategy and organizations

Cited by 4 publications

References 58 publications

Are seed accelerators status springboards for startups? Or sand traps?

Are seed accelerators status springboards for startups? Or sand traps?

Honing the Craft of Qualitative Data Collection in Extreme Contexts

SO! Far, SO! Good: Strategic Organization at 20

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