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Sociology Department Seminars14 May 2014
Comparative entrepreneurshipand the
sociology of markets
Hugh WhittakerDep.t of Management and International Business,
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Motivation
• Research on Japanese and UK small businesses (vs large)
• Are entrepreneurs and processes of entrepreneurship essentially similar, or do they differ in important ways?
• Are they shaped by their respective environments, and if so what environments, and how?
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• Hypothesize that ent.p is influenced by the institutional environment
• Select sector and highlight different focuses or types of innovative/ ent.l activity
• Cf Hall and Soskice 2001
• ….. danger of confirmation of prejudice
(Qualitative) institutional/VoC approaches
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Entrepreneurship (working definition)
‘processes in which opportunities are discovered or created, and turned into market outcomes by organizational means’
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Research design
• Compare like with like, seek to explain differences and similarities
• Focus on ‘high tech’ defined by industry, SMEs - less than 200 employees
• ‘Combined method’ research - quantitative (2 Japanese, 2 UK surveys) and qualitative (25 Japanese, 25 UK interviews)
• (Difficulty of researching ‘processes’: Approach used in this study is one of ‘snapshots’ or ‘frames’ provided by surveys, interpreted and linked by interview data)
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Research design and data set
1st J Quest.July-Aug. 1996‘Venture’ 308
valid resp. (13.3%)
1st UK Quest.Jan. 1998
‘High tech’ 510 valid resp. (26.9%)
2nd J Quest.Feb.-March. 2002
‘Venture’ 349 valid resp. (9.4%)
2nd UK Quest.Dec.2000-Jan.2001
‘High tech’ 237 valid resp. (34.2%)
UK., Japan cases
Selection of 25 UK, 25 J. cases (‘theoretical sampling’)
UK interviews 2001,
J. interviews 2003-04
Comparative Entrepreneurship data set
UK n = 113; Japan n = 223
Integrated (quantitative-qualitative) data
Founders & Founding data set
UK n = 148; Japan n = 90
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Similarities
• Average founding age 37 - importance of employment background
• Most start out as ‘reproducers’ not ‘innovators’ - ‘soft’ start (some get stuck in ‘soft’ stage) e.g. subcontracting; exceptions were serial entrepreneurs, MBO/MBI (UK), successors (Japan). Become more innovative over time
• Majority started with co-founders, former employer support common
• Gradualists, cautious approach to growth
• Becoming rich was not a major motivation; over-riding concern was to establish a viable and trusted business
• CONTRAST with VC-backed, ‘home run’ product-oriented, fast-growth-and-exit (‘SV’) model
but salient differences as wellbut salient differences as well….….
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Differences
• Founding teams: ex colleagues vs family/relations, greater vs less resource contribution
• Attitudes to growth, risk, innovation: more vs less growth, voluntary vs involuntary view of risk, product vs product and process focus
• Competitive orientations: external focus on customer needs vs building internal competences
• HRM orientations and leadership: entrepreneur as conductor vs locomotive
• Collaborations: more vs less collaborations, no.s of partners, reasons
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Underlying differences
Project entrepreneurship Lifework entrepreneurship
(Market focus)
Logic of choice
Logic of ‘responsivity’
(horizontal)
Programmed time
(Technology focus)
Logic of commitment
Logic of control
(vertical)
Open-ended time
More prevalent in the UK More prevalent in Japan
differences maintained or even heightened by high performers…
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Why these differences?
Different environments (population ecology)
Backgrounds of entrepreneurs (technology vs management)
Markets/institutions(utility vs relational markets)
What can be brought to the market? Who can participate? What are the terms of participation and exchange?
(Cultural factors)
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Changing Japan?
• Comparison of post-industrial (or post-Fordist) UK with industrial (or Fordist) Japan?
• Anecdotal evidence of change from finance, IT, biotech, etc.
• Some differences in terms of business objectives, orientations
• But overall, much continuity as well (cf high performers)