24 SEPTEMBER, 13.00–14.00
Title: The importance of self-efficacy in uncertain environments – Covid-19 as a natural experiment
Speakers: Carsten Bergenholtz, Kim Klyver and Oana Vuculescu
Location: Zoom (please contact Henrik Berglund to attend)
Abstract: Prior research has established that individuals’ entrepreneurial self-efficacy is positively related to entrepreneurial intentions. We investigate if the link between increased entrepreneurial self- efficacy over time and entrepreneurial intentions depends on the level of uncertainty in the environment. In a two-wave study, we exploit the Covid-19 induced lockdown of the Danish society as a natural experiment during our second wave. We compare the link between entrepreneurial self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intentions in a cohort of 132 students responding either right before or after the implementation of the lockdown, i.e. responding in low or high uncertainty environments. Using the same students’ responses 2.5 years earlier as a baseline, we show that the link does indeed depend on the level of uncertainty, with entrepreneurial self-efficacy being a stronger predictor of entrepreneurial intentions before the implementation of the lockdown compared to after.
08 OCTOBER, 13.00–14.00
Title: From vicious to virtuous dynamics in digital transformation: How change agents leverage ambiguity by digital transformation strategizing
Speaker: Jonny Holmström
Location: Zoom (please contact Henrik Berglundto attend)
Abstract: The dynamics of digital transformation can be both vicious and virtuous. Past research has primarily sought to explain how alignment between business and IT strategy can generate virtuous dynamics for firms. The alignment logic presupposes that tight links between the functional role and strategic purpose of digital technologies must be established and that the interpretative flexibility of digital technology forms an obstacle that needs to be overcome through clear communications. However, as digital transformation has become increasingly challenging and digital technologies have become increasingly disruptive and multi-faceted, questions regarding the validity of the alignment logic emerge. In this paper, we critically review assumptions surrounding the alignment logic in the context of digital transformation through a multi-case study. We identify three types of digital transformation strategizing, and observe how, when, and why ambiguous uses of digital technology play a critical role during digital transformation. Our study has multiple implications for theorizing about ambiguous and processual nature and versatility of digital technology uses in the context of digital transformation.
22 OCTOBER, 16.00–17.00
Title: Back to the Future – Technology Reemergence through the Lens of Music Synthesizers
Speakers: Andrew Nelson
Location: Zoom (please contact Henrik Berglund to attend)
Abstract: Models of technological change typically adopt a perspective in which technologies continuously improve along dimensions such as capabilities, features and price-performance ratios. Yet recent observations of the reemergence of "old" technologies – such as vinyl records, instant film cameras, and analog watches – suggest that technology markets may be more complex than such linear models allow. Our paper sheds light on the process of technology reemergence through an inductive study of the music-synthesizer industry. Leveraging more than 30 years of data, we trace how consumer demand that is informed by the ongoing use of a prior technology led manufacturers to engage in iterative efforts to make the new technology increasingly look, feel and sound like the very technology it replaced. Yet these very actions served to crystallize the authenticity of the old technology and to clarify how it afforded expertise that the new technology did not. Ultimately, this process can lead to the reemergence of a seemingly-"dead" technology. Our work foregrounds the role of users in shaping technology trajectories, demonstrates how the framing of new technologies can shape the perceived authenticity of old ones, and explores the relationship between technology affordances, occupational expertise, and technology adoption.
05 NOVEMBER, 16.00–17.00
Title: Artificial Intelligence and Entrepreneurship
Speaker: David Townsend and Richard Hunt
Location: Zoom (please contact Henrik Berglund to attend)
19 NOVEMBER
TBA (title, abstract and speaker will be updated soon)
3 DECEMBER, 16.00-17:00
Title: Toward a Theory of Search as Design Process
Speakers: Samuel Macaulay and David K. Reetz
Location: Zoom
Abstract: Theories of organizational search, originating in the Behavioral Theory of the Firm, explain search as a deductive problem-solving process based on existing knowledge structures. However, they were not intended to explain how organizations would search for new knowledge structures needed to generate true novelty. Drawing on studies of design, we theorize an organizational search process describing how novelty could be generated effectively in the face of uncertainty. Instead of deductively moving from problem-definitions to solutions, we suggest that triggered by doubt, organizational actors may abductively create contextually plausible causal models by linking potentially relevant problems and solutions. We elaborate the consequences of this conceptual shift by theorizing the process of abductive searching that explains how actors could pursue an abstract goal by simultaniously searching for problems, solutions, and links between them; to establish a new knowledge structure. We contribute to the literature on innovation, strategy, and entrepreneurship, by, respectively; introducing a purposive organizational process of exploration that reaches beyond novelty as a serendipitous outcome; extending the cognitive perspective in strategy with a creation process that enhances agency; and providing a new way of linking entrepreneurial judgment to the pursuit of extraordinary results.
Previous seminars
2020
31 JANUARY
Professor Dan Kärreman from Copenhagen Business School will the paper "Understanding control in communities
of practice: Constructive disobedience in a high-tech firm”, recently published in Human Relations.
When: 10.00-11.30
2019
4 FEBRUARY
Marino Van Zelst
Title: Strategic Decision Effectiveness: Toward A Configurational Perspective
When: 13.15 - 15.00
Where: Vera Sandbergs Allé 8, TME Room 3443 Brunnsparken
11 MARCH
Sirkka Jarvenpaa, the University of Texas at Austin and Lisen Selander, University of Gothenburg
Title: Xenografting Multiple Organizational Logics In Political Activism: The Decoder Project At Amnesty International
When: 10.15 - 12.00
Where: Vera Sandbergs Allé 8, TME Room 3443 Brunnsparken
12 MARCH
Mariëtte Kaandorp, Rotterdam School of Management
Title: Cognition in entrepreneurial networking of new ventures
When: 13.15 - 15.00
Where: Vera Sandbergs Allé 8, TME Room 3443 Brunnsparken
19 MARCH
Sally Jones, Manchester Metropolitan University
Title: “This class is not for you” and “Gendered language, gendered choices?”
When: 13.15 - 15.00
Where: Vera Sandbergs Allé 8, TME Room 3443 Brunnsparken
29 MARCH
Paavo Ritala, LUT School of Business and Management
Title: Tensions of ambidextrous change: Evolutionary view to tension emergence and resolution
When: 10.15 - 12.00
Where: Vera Sandbergs Allé 8, TME Room 3443 Brunnsparken
2 APRIL
Ove Granstrand, Cambridge University and Chalmers University of Technology
Title: Do patents and innovations contribute to economic growth and welfare?
When: 13.15 - 15.00
Where: Vera Sandbergs Allé 8, TME Room 2456 Korsvägen