14 Entrepreneurial Strategies

entrepreneurial strategies to promote new industry development

level of analysis → strategy

organizational → storytelling

intraindustry → imitation & collective action

interindustry → category creation

institutional → institutional entrepreneurship

entrepreneurial strategy: storytelling importance

stories provide accounts that explain, rationalize and promote a new venture to reduce uncertainty

entrepreneurial strategy: storytelling definition stories

narratives …

• with a clear temporal structure (beginning, middle, end)

• with transitions and event sequences propelled by plot lines and twists

• shaped by defining characters

entrepreneurial strategy: storytelling function

• making sense of an equivocal situation

• creating order and objectification

• reducing uncertainty

• building confidence that the enterprise can succeed

entrepreneurial strategy: storytelling requirements

stories have to…

• resonate with the target audience

• have a happy ending

entrepreneurial stategy: storytelling transformation over time

early stage: symbolic

• vision, possibility, distant future

• builds beliefs and attracts initial capital

later stage: substantive

• concrete, measurable, near-term

• defends legitimacy under scrutiny

entrepreneurial strategy: imitation and collective action parallel play

• ignoring large firms offering substitutes in established markets

• little concern with resemblimg or differentiating from peers in the nascent market

• borrowing as a form of bricolage (saving time and resources)

• aiming for business model in order to learn and progress

• testing, pausing and adjusting the model

entrepreneurial strategy: category creation radical innovations

• depend on social movement activists

• often mixing “hot causes” with “cool mobilization”

entrepreneurial strategy: institutional entrepreneurship creating an institution

1. naturalize the technology by embedding the technology in existing institutionalized practices

2. legitimate new users by creating new roles

3. institutionalize new technology by e.g. defining new terms

4. inscribe a new meaning in the technology by modifying existing institution

entrepreneurial strategy: institutional entrepreneurship creating the “Kodak moment”

1. embedding the technology into vacation

2. creating new roles by seperating photography from development

3. creating new institutions with “snapshots” and “albums”

4. modifying existing institutions by shifting quality criteria (convenience over quality) and giving new meanings (camera is “fun” and “essential”)