Entrepreneurship, Career Experience and Learning - Developing Our Understanding of Entrepreneurship as an Experiential Learning Process
(2005)- Abstract
- Why are some individuals more successful in recognizing and exploiting new venture opportunities than others? The common view is that successful entrepreneurs have acquired and developed specific types of knowledge through their previous career experiences, which in turn facilitate their involvement in the entrepreneurial process from opportunity recognition to opportunity exploitation. If this is true, how can we understand the learning mechanisms that underlie this experiential learning process? The overall purpose of this dissertation is to develop concepts that enhances our understanding of entrepreneurship as an experiential learning process, and based on this development to empirically test a conceptual framework that explains how... (More)
- Why are some individuals more successful in recognizing and exploiting new venture opportunities than others? The common view is that successful entrepreneurs have acquired and developed specific types of knowledge through their previous career experiences, which in turn facilitate their involvement in the entrepreneurial process from opportunity recognition to opportunity exploitation. If this is true, how can we understand the learning mechanisms that underlie this experiential learning process? The overall purpose of this dissertation is to develop concepts that enhances our understanding of entrepreneurship as an experiential learning process, and based on this development to empirically test a conceptual framework that explains how individuals develop entrepreneurial knowledge through experiences acquired in their careers. To meet the overall purpose five individual studies have been conducted. The empirical data consists of both personal interviews as well as a large-scale mail questionnaire on Swedish entrepreneurs. The overall findings imply that entrepreneurship should be conceived as a lifelong learning process that proceeds both before and after the initial start-up of a new venture. This means that the sequences of events whereby individuals enter an entrepreneurial career and learn how to recognize and exploit new ventures opportunities needs to be understood in the light of individuals? career experiences as a whole. Entrepreneurial learning is consequently not something that only occurs in typical entrepreneurial settings but also in the everyday working life of individuals well before they even think of being involved in new venture creation. Moreover, the overall findings suggest the need to reconsider the predominant view on entrepreneurial learning which presumes a direct link between a particular experience and the knowledge gained from this experience. The empirical results show that different types of career experiences lead to different types of entrepreneurial knowledge, and that the knowledge developed also depends on the entrepreneurs? preferred mode of transforming experience to knowledge, i.e. whether they prefer putting their emphasis on exploring new possibilities or exploiting their pre-existent knowledge. Consequently, there is a need to distinguish between the two concepts "experience" and "knowledge" if we are to understand entrepreneurship as an experiential learning process. (Less)
- Abstract (Swedish)
- Popular Abstract in Swedish
Varför är vissa individer bättre på att identifiera och exploatera nya affärsmöjligheter än andra? Ett antagande som ofta lyfts fram är att framgångsrika entreprenörer förväntas ha utvecklat specifika kunskaper genom tidigare karriärerfarenhet, vilket i sin tur främjar deras entreprenörskap. Om detta antagande stämmer, hur kan vi förstå denna erfarenhetsbaserade lärprocess? Det övergripande syftet med avhandlingen är att utveckla begrepp som ökar vår förståelse för entreprenörskap som en erfarenhetsbaserad lärprocess, och baserat på detta empiriskt testa ett konceptuellt ramverk som förklarar hur individer skapar entreprenöriell kunskap genom karriärerfarenhet. För att uppnå det övergripande... (More) - Popular Abstract in Swedish
Varför är vissa individer bättre på att identifiera och exploatera nya affärsmöjligheter än andra? Ett antagande som ofta lyfts fram är att framgångsrika entreprenörer förväntas ha utvecklat specifika kunskaper genom tidigare karriärerfarenhet, vilket i sin tur främjar deras entreprenörskap. Om detta antagande stämmer, hur kan vi förstå denna erfarenhetsbaserade lärprocess? Det övergripande syftet med avhandlingen är att utveckla begrepp som ökar vår förståelse för entreprenörskap som en erfarenhetsbaserad lärprocess, och baserat på detta empiriskt testa ett konceptuellt ramverk som förklarar hur individer skapar entreprenöriell kunskap genom karriärerfarenhet. För att uppnå det övergripande syftet har fem separata studier utförts och inplacerats i studiens övergripande teoretiska ramverk. Den empiriska delen av avhandlingen består av personliga intervjuer samt en större enkätundersökning på entreprenörer i Sverige. Avhandlingens resultat visar att entreprenörskap bör ses som en livslång lärprocess som sker både före och efter en företagsstart. Detta innebär att skeenden och händelser som bidrar till att individer lär sig att identifiera och exploatera nya affärsmöjligheter behöver förstås ur ett vidare perspektiv som fångar upp både variationen och spännvidden i individens karriärerfarenhet. Att lära sig entreprenörskap är således inte enbart ett fenomen som sker i typiska entreprenöriella situationer, som t ex vid en företagsstart, utan är även något som sker i individers vardagliga arbetssituation långt innan de ens tänkt bli involverade i företagsetablering. Avhandlingens resultat visar även på ett behov av att ompröva det dominerande synsättet på entreprenöriellt lärande, som på ett förhållandevis oproblematiskt sätt förutsätter en direkt länk mellan en specifik erfarenhet och att kunskap erhålls ifrån denna specifika erfarenhet. De empiriska resultaten visar snarare att olika typer av karriärerfarenhet leder till olika typer av entreprenöriell kunskap, men också att den kunskap som utvecklas beror på om entreprenören föredrar att fokusera på att utforska nya möjligheter eller på att exploatera redan befintliga färdigheter. Det finns således ett behov av att skilja på begreppen "erfarenhet" och "kunskap" för att bättre förstå entreprenörskap som en erfarenhetsbaserad lärprocess. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/544806
- author
- Politis, Diamanto LU
- supervisor
-
- Hans Landström LU
- Rikard Larsson LU
- opponent
-
- Professor Harrison, Richard, University of Edinburgh
- organization
- publishing date
- 2005
- type
- Thesis
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- management, Företagsledning, Management of enterprises, entrepreneurial knowledge, experiential learning, Entrepreneurial learning, career experience
- pages
- 285 pages
- publisher
- SIRE, Halmstad University
- defense location
- EC3:207, Ekonomihögskolan
- defense date
- 2005-05-23 13:15:00
- ISBN
- 91-628-6477-7
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 26605d15-8f1b-4ea0-9e2a-f52f058393b6 (old id 544806)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-04 11:26:28
- date last changed
- 2018-11-21 21:04:53
@phdthesis{26605d15-8f1b-4ea0-9e2a-f52f058393b6,
abstract = {{Why are some individuals more successful in recognizing and exploiting new venture opportunities than others? The common view is that successful entrepreneurs have acquired and developed specific types of knowledge through their previous career experiences, which in turn facilitate their involvement in the entrepreneurial process from opportunity recognition to opportunity exploitation. If this is true, how can we understand the learning mechanisms that underlie this experiential learning process? The overall purpose of this dissertation is to develop concepts that enhances our understanding of entrepreneurship as an experiential learning process, and based on this development to empirically test a conceptual framework that explains how individuals develop entrepreneurial knowledge through experiences acquired in their careers. To meet the overall purpose five individual studies have been conducted. The empirical data consists of both personal interviews as well as a large-scale mail questionnaire on Swedish entrepreneurs. The overall findings imply that entrepreneurship should be conceived as a lifelong learning process that proceeds both before and after the initial start-up of a new venture. This means that the sequences of events whereby individuals enter an entrepreneurial career and learn how to recognize and exploit new ventures opportunities needs to be understood in the light of individuals? career experiences as a whole. Entrepreneurial learning is consequently not something that only occurs in typical entrepreneurial settings but also in the everyday working life of individuals well before they even think of being involved in new venture creation. Moreover, the overall findings suggest the need to reconsider the predominant view on entrepreneurial learning which presumes a direct link between a particular experience and the knowledge gained from this experience. The empirical results show that different types of career experiences lead to different types of entrepreneurial knowledge, and that the knowledge developed also depends on the entrepreneurs? preferred mode of transforming experience to knowledge, i.e. whether they prefer putting their emphasis on exploring new possibilities or exploiting their pre-existent knowledge. Consequently, there is a need to distinguish between the two concepts "experience" and "knowledge" if we are to understand entrepreneurship as an experiential learning process.}},
author = {{Politis, Diamanto}},
isbn = {{91-628-6477-7}},
keywords = {{management; Företagsledning; Management of enterprises; entrepreneurial knowledge; experiential learning; Entrepreneurial learning; career experience}},
language = {{eng}},
publisher = {{SIRE, Halmstad University}},
school = {{Lund University}},
title = {{Entrepreneurship, Career Experience and Learning - Developing Our Understanding of Entrepreneurship as an Experiential Learning Process}},
year = {{2005}},
}