Moving, shaping and managing boundaries.

The fundamental question for entrepreneurship scholars is to understand why, how and by whom opportunities are explored and brought into markets [1]. In analyzing this, two schools of thought have emerged: ii) some authors believe that entrepreneurs pursue opportunities existent within the boundaries of the market, suggesting therefore that activities such as market analysis and business planning are essential to succeed; ii) others rival this reasoning suggesting that entrepreneurs do not follow but lead, i.e., instead of pursuing existent opportunities, entrepreneurs create and shape their own (see for instance [2]).

Recent contributions throw light on the premise that entrepreneurs move, shape and manage the boundaries of their ventures and markets. Filipe Santos and Kathleen Eisenhardt have published in the August issue of the Academy of Management Journal an exciting research piece on how entrepreneurs claim, demarcate and control a market. They analyze extensively five young ventures trading in new markets over their first five years of existence. The results show that entrepreneurs in fact shape organizational boundaries and construct their market using mechanisms of soft power in high ambiguity contexts. The implications of these results point to the importance of power in the entrepreneurial process, particularly when striving in a new market context [3].


The examples of this kind of blurred boundaries in management research are immense: Von Hippel discusses the crucial importance of including the users in the innovation system [4]; Chesbrough talks about the disappearing boundaries between users, innovators and manufacturers [5]; Weick’s research is carried on the boundaries between management and psychology disciplines [6], among many, many others.
Come and join us to discuss blurring boundaries business, economics and management next March 19th, 2010 in Nyenrode Business Universiteit.

[1] Davidsson, P. (2004). Researching Entrepreneurship. New York, USA: Springer.
[2] Sarasvathy, S. D. (2001). Causation and Effectuation: Toward a Theoretical Shift from Economic Inevitability to Entrepreneurial Contingency. The Academy of Management Review, 26(2), 243-263.
[3] Santos, F. M. and Eisenhardt, K. M. (2009). Constructing Markets and Shaping Boundaries: Entrepreneurial Power in Nascent Fields. Academy of Management Journal, 52(4), 643-671.
[4] Hippel, E. v. (2005). Democratizing Innovation. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
[5] Chesbrough, H. W. (2003). Open innovation: the new imperative for creating and profiting from technology. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation.
[6] Weick, K. E. and Sutcliffe, K. M. (2007). Managing the unexpected: resilient performance in an age of uncertainty San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.