Na Assembleia da Anegepe, evento pré congresso do EGEPE, o Prof. Shaker Zahra nos trouxe sua visão sobre as tendências de pesquisa em empreendedorismo no mundo. Mar/2012, Florianópolis.

1. Entrepreneurship:
Past, Present and Future
Shaker A. Zahra
Carlson School of Management
University of Minnesota

2. Some General Observations
 Progress has been startling, with greater acceptance and diffusion
of entrepreneurship programs & centers.
 Newcomers from outside the field have enriched the field and
redefined it.
 Theory development has been slow, whereas methodological rigor
has increased.
 Attention to public policy issues is growing.

3. Some General Observations
 The production of entrepreneurship knowledge and scholarship
is a worldwide enterprise, with prominent scholars and centers
located around the globe.
 This is compelling us to reflect on the relativity of entrepreneurial
processes, motives and outcomes.

4. Agenda
 Key shifts in entrepreneurship research:
– Milestones & major transitions
– Where are we?
 Some emerging issues that are likely to redefine What and How
we study entrepreneurship.
– Persistent debates
– Promising directions

5. Studying Entrepreneurship
Use of Archival data
Econometric
Disciplinary Focus
…………………………
Qualitative Methods
Theory Building Focus
Field/ Surveys
Use of theory developed
elsewhere
Multivariate Focus
Clinical Tradition
Case study
Limited theoretical
grounding

6. Studying Entrepreneurship
Ivy League Big 10 Large State/ Balanced
Middle Tier Missions
Disciplinary ***** ***** ** Very little
Focus theory
Industry Focus ***** ***** **
Archival *** ***** *
Field ** * ****
Surveys **** ****
Case Study Theory Teaching Teaching
building
Experimental * *
Econometrics ***** **** **

7. The Way We Were
 The “Babson” Clinical Tradition
– Phenomenon driven
– Descriptive
– Process oriented (without the formality of a unified framework)
– Action Based
– The entrepreneur as hero
• Lack of theoretical grounding, combined with poor empiricism,
drew criticism from within and outside the field.

8. Where We Are!
 A shift occurred with the creation of:
– The Babson Research Conference
– Academy of Management: Entrepreneurship Division
– Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice
– Journal of Business Ventures
 Greater attention to large scale surveys
– The debate about the distinctive domain of entrepreneurship
– Greater attention to the “whats” of entrepreneurship

9. Going Beyond Individual Entrepreneurship
 The recognition of corporate entrepreneurship as an integral part
of the field:
– What is it?
– Who does it?
– How to foster it?
– When does it pay off?
– Forms of benefit from corporate entrepreneurship:
• Knowledge and learning
• Strategic Variety and flexibility
• Opportunities
• Financial performance
– Relationship between corporate and individual entrepreneurship

10. Redefining the Field around Opportunity
Opportunity Opportunity
Opportunity Opportunity
Discovery Evaluation Exploitation
Evaluation
Context

11. Where Are We?
 Hard to tell
 Fragmentation is commonplace
– Gartner: We are in different tents
 Entrepreneurship: A field of Dreams

12. Some Promising Developments
 Questioning how we count things.
 Rediscovery of the Entrepreneur
 Greater attention to context
 From Entrepreneurial Orientation to Capability
 Formal vs. Informal Entrepreneurship
 Social Impact: Social Ventures & Sustainability
 Focus on Exploitation
 National Policy
 Micro-foundations
 Studying Entrepreneurship

13. Rediscovery of Entrepreneur
 From traits to intangibles
– Cognition
– Identity
• Gendering the field?
– Passion • Ethnics/ Race
– Persistence • Immigrant
– Learning/ Experience Effects
– Managing & surviving failures

14. Dimensions of Context
Dimensions What does it Mean?
Spatial The physical setting or location of event, text,
relationship.
Time Sequencing of the text in relation to other texts
or events.
Practice Locating text (event) in a domain of related
ideas, values and modes of operating.
Change Arena where concept is deployed, altered, etc.
to give new meaning
[Leitch & Palmer, 2010; Thornoton, 1999]

15. Concerns about Contextualization
 Theory-free research
 Generalizability is sacrificed. There is a belief that context-free
theories/studies are more scientific than context-specific studies.
 Context: An over-used concept that has become a “conceptual
garbage can” [Akman, 2000:754]
 Subjectivity in defining and invoking context [Dilley, 1999]
 What are the dimensions of the “context”?
 There is the possibility that context is the key source of “study-to-
study variations” [Johns, 2006:389]

16. So, How do the Differences look like?
Entrepreneurship Research
Variables Current Practice Contextualized
Treatment of context Control for it Is part of the story;
sometimes it is the story
Role of Researcher Distant, detached Heavily engaged.
Scope (of propositions) Broad Bounded.
Phenomenon Defined a priori •Defined by context
• Meaning & boundaries
often evolve as research
progresses
Questions Relevance Generalizability

17. Entrepreneurial Orientation
 EO as a reflection of
– Proactiveness
– Innovativeness
– Risk Taking
– Autonomy

18. Entrepreneurial Orientation
 We need to reassess the value added of investing
resources into the study of EO.
 If we are going to continue to study EO, we need:
– Better conceptualization & contextualization of EO
research.
– Cleverer measures of EO
– Examining the dysfunctional consequences of EO.

19. Entrepreneurial (dis)Orienation
 EO: a mishmash of many constructs.
 Disposition to be entrepreneurial does not really
mean action, behavior (i.e., being entrepreneurial):
– Whose orientation?
• Firm
• TMT
• Employees
 What is entrepreneurial about the E in EO?

20. From EO to Capability?
 Capabilities are closer to managerial action.
 We can gauge multiple capabilities.
 WE can look into different attributes of a
given capability (e.g., novelty).
 Their effect on performance is not
automatic.

21. What Passes for Entrepreneurship?

22. Why do these Dimensions Matter?
What does it mean? Strategic Example indicators
Dimension
Consequences
Magnitude  Extent to which  Differentiation  Extent to which
activity is new venture takes existing
of novelty (multiple vs. few concept to a new
dimensions) market.
 Extent to which
venture embodies new
product in new or
existing markets
 # of markets created
over time and # of
new entrants.

23. Why do these Dimensions Matter?
 How many  Resource  Number of start-ups
entrepreneurial
accumulation or spin-offs,
activities are
Rate undertaken?  Learning buyouts, and buy-ins
per year or per
 Over what period? entrepreneur
 # of knowledge
 Variability sources used to
Variety of  Organizational
across actions, identify
exploitation form opportunity.
initiatives &
modes
ventures
 Game change  Diversity of
organizational
and shaping of forms in a market.
the ecosystem.
 # & diversity of
proprietary
processes in a
market

24. Formal vs. Informal Entrepreneurship
Legitimacy Formality
Formal Informal
1 3
Legitimate most widely studied limited attention by
sociologists & economists.
2 4
great attention and growing
Illegitimate CSR and criminology study because of effect on
economic development

25. Informal Entrepreneurship
Employment
Training
+ Effects Experimentation
Sometimes only way to render
service
Informal
Entrepreneurship
Corruption
Gresham’s law: Driving legitimate
business out of the market
Exploitation of children and other
-Effects disadvantaged groups

26. Dark Side of Entrepreneurship
 Influence, control and abuse of power.
– Corruption
– Misallocation of resources
 Delaying social and political change
 Delaying and even suppressing technological
change.
 “Absolving” the state from the responsibility for
public good.
 Class Strife

27. The Social Impact of Entrepreneurship
Venture Potential Impact
Type
Positive Negative
Traditional Well Studied Under
Studied
Social
Receiving Rarely
Growing Studied
Attention

28. Types of Social Innovations
Market
(internet micro-financing)
Management
Social
Innovations
Political
(coalition building)
Institutional
(e.g., new models)
(Brooks, 2009)

29. Opportunity Exploitation:
Coverage in the Literature
Variable Coverage
Mode of Exploitation *****
Timing ***
Movement from Exploration to Exploitation *
Opportunity Attributes as Antecedent *
Structure as Antecedent **
Culture & Norms as Antecedents **
Environment as Antecedent **

30. What Does Exploitation Mean?
 Refers to those activities that transform an opportunity into a
source of value.
 Opportunities are not limited to products [Foss et al., 2011] or
physical goods; they involve:
– Intangibles (differentiated offering)
– Intellectual (Ideas, discoveries)
– Processes
• Market Creation
• Industry
• Intra & inter-organizational systems, routines, and procedures

31. Role of National Policies
 What role should the state play in promoting
entrepreneurship?
 What should national policies include?
– Sectors
– Access
– Incentives
– Relationship between FDI & Entrepreneurship
– Relationship between incumbents & new ventures
 Balanced ecosystems that foster growth

32. Studying Microfoundations
 Microfoundations refer to individual cognitions, attitudes,
beliefs, motivations, and behaviors that create and influence
macro structures (e.g., firms, organizations, markets & networks)
and other social economic activities [van de Ven, 2010].
 Highlight the role of agency [Sarasvarthy, 2008]
 Important for reclaiming the centrality of the
entrepreneur
 Micro-processes [Teece et al., 2007], which have been
overlooked in entrepreneurship research [Santos &
Eisenhardt, 2009]
 Recognizes that economic action arises from their situated
cognitions, as expressions of their beliefs [Nonaka et al., 2008]

33. From Micro-Foundations to Macro-Structure
New Firms
Individual- Micro- With Varying Networks
Level Processes degrees of ENT

34. Studying Entrepreneurship
Use of Archival data
Econometric
Disciplinary Focus
…………………………
Qualitative Methods
Theory Building Focus
Field/ Surveys
Use of theory developed
elsewhere
Multivariate Focus
Clinical Tradition
Case study
Limited theoretical
grounding

35. Studying Entrepreneurship
Ivy League Big 10 Large State/ Balanced
Middle Tier Missions
Disciplinary ***** ***** ** Very little
Focus theory
Industry Focus ***** ***** **
Archival *** ***** *
Field ** * ****
Surveys **** ****
Case Study Theory Teaching Teaching
building
Experimental * *
Econometrics ***** **** **

36. Conclusion
 We have come far but we continue to struggle with fundamental questions:
– Is there a unifying framework?
– Why does the field continue to borrow ideas/ theories from elsewhere?
Why not develop our own theories?
• We use theories developed elsewhere but do we add to these theories?
• Are entrepreneurial phenomena distinct enough to warrant
developing theory?
– How can we influence public policy?

37. Thank you

38. Social Entrepreneurship Vs. Social Innovation
Dimensions Social Entrepreneurship Social Innovations
Focus New Firm creation Social Movement
through Partnerships
Goals Money making Solving social Issues
Solving Social issues Empowerment
Locus of Action Mostly Individual Partnerships (Collective
Action)

39. Entrepreneurship:
Productive, Unproductive & Counterproductive
Locus Individual Corporate
Productive Firm creation Venturing
Business Creation
Unproductive Exploitation of Empire building (MA)
Type labor &
environment
Counterproductive Bribery Dumping
Illicit trade Pollution
Traditional Philanthropy Philanthropy
Solutions CSR
Emerging SE “Bottom of the
Pyramid”