Innova Institute research (and III): Entrepreneurship

Yesterday, it was Schumpeter's birthday anniversary, born on 8 February 1883. Joseph A. Schumpeter is one of the major contributors to our current understanding on how economic development occurrs, pinpointing the role of of entrepreneurs as individuals actors introducing innovations in the markets (Schumpeter, 1939). He was one of the first to talk about the idea of opportunities for entrepreneurial profit as a motivation to create new products or services (Schumpeter, 1934); and portrayed the existence of periods of creative destruction were changes in technology, regulation, and other factors, generate information on how existing and new resources can be rearranged in innovative ways, giving room to entrepreneurial projects (Shane, 2000). The early contributions of Schumpeter (1934, 1939) in economic theory and entrepreneurship have given support to the emergence of the entrepreneurship research field, making it one of the most active areas in management research (Shane & Venkataraman, 2000). At the same time, institutions and governments are aware of the linkages of entrepreneurship and economic development, more recently, companies struggling to sustain their growth strategies have also turned to entrepreneurship - in fact corporate entrepreneurship - to find sources of innovation in their business models and strategic development (Teece, 2009). From the Innova Institute at BES La Salle we are interested in approaching the entrepreneurship phenomena following a holistic perspective, aiming to cover a wide variety of issues, from the opportunity identification to venture development and company configuration. We are currently engaged in two research projects focused in the entrepreneurial exploration and exploitation of opportunities: - The impact of prior knowledge in the identification of entrepreneurial opportunities. - Early-stage entrepreneurial ventures development and the use of business model and planning tools. References: Schumpeter, J. A. 1934. The theory of economic development: An inquiry into profits, capital credit, interest, and the business cycle. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Schumpeter, J. A. 1939, Business Cycles: A Theoretical, Historical, and Statistical Analysis of the Capitalist Process, New York: McGraw-Hill. Shane, S., Venkataraman, S. 2000. The promise of entrepreneurship as a field of research. Academy of Management Review, 26(1): 217–226. Shane, S. 2000. Prior knowledge and the discovery of entrepreneurial opportunities. Organization Science, 11(4): 448–469. Teece, D. 2009. Business Models, Business Strategy and Innovation. Long Range Planning. In Press.