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Call for papers: Special Issue of

Journal of Evolutionary Economics

Entrepreneurial action in the origins and evolution of organizational routines

Guest Editors:

Peter T. Bryant, IE Business School-IE University

Nathalie Lazaric, Université Nice Sophia Antipolis

Deadline for submissions: July 31, 2017

Entrepreneurial action is fundamental for the evolution of routines conceived as patterns of action, within both new and existing organizations (Becker, Knudsen, & March, 2006). Investigating entrepreneurial action can therefore shed light on the origins of organizational routines and their evolutionary dynamics over time, especially at the individual or micro-foundational level (Felin & Foss, 2009; Winter, 2013, Nelson, 2016).

Entrepreneurial action provides several types of antecedents to organizational routines, such as habits and values, and experience within prior organizations that is imprinted and carried over in the form of procedures, rules, or guidelines (Aldrich & Yang, 2014; Bryant, 2014; Lazaric, 2011). Through these antecedents, founder entrepreneurs shape the evolution of new organizations, via their influence on collective values, beliefs, goals and identities (Becker, 2012; Howard-Grenville, 2005). Similarly, entrepreneurial leaders within existing organizations promote new and adaptive routines, as they seek to drive change and growth.

Entrepreneurial founders and leaders are rarely isolated individuals, but use social capital in venture creation and organizational renewal (Davidsson & Honig, 2003). Thus, teams and groups are equally critical for the evolution of organizational routines, as well as providing the mix of skills employed in this process (Lazaric & Raybaut, 2005). In this context, Pentland and Feldman (2008) suggest representing routines as networks of action. Adopting their perspective, we can view decisions as embedded in a network of action, not simply as individual performances, and view organizations as environments of ongoing action patterns (Pentland, Haerem, & Hillison, 2010). In summary, there is much to learn from the investigation of entrepreneurial action and processes.

We invite papers from a range of theoretical and methodological approaches that address how entrepreneurial action effects the origins of organizational routines and their evolution over time. In particular, we welcome papers that provide a fruitful conversation between evolutionary insights and practice theory, viewing entrepreneurship as a process and capability developed and enacted over time.

Questions of interest include but are not restricted to the following:

·         Which antecedents do entrepreneurs provide for shaping the origins and evolution of organizational routines?

·         By which mechanisms or means does entrepreneurial action directly shape organizational routines and structures?

·         How do organizational routines imprinted by entrepreneurs contribute to the stability and change of organizations?

·         How does collective entrepreneurial action at the venture level contribute towards evolutionary dynamics at social and industry levels?

·         By which mechanisms are habits selected and replicated in the emergence of routines within new and existing organizations?

·         Which team characteristics enhance the evolution of organizational routines and collective performance in the venturing process? 

Submissions should follow the guidelines for the journal: https://www.editorialmanager.com/jeec/default.aspx

Please send any questions about this call to:

peter.bryant@ie.edu

lazaric@gredeg.cnrs.fr

References:

Aldrich, H. E., & Yang, T. 2014. How do entrepreneurs know what to do? Learning and organizing in new ventures. Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 24(1): 59-82.

Becker, M. C. 2012. Entrepreneurial Imprinting and Organizational Persistence: The Case of Carl Zeiss. SSRN eLibrary.

Becker, M. C., Knudsen, T., & March, J. G. 2006. Schumpeter, Winter, and the sources of novelty. Industrial and Corporate Change, 15(2): 353-371.

Bryant, P. T. 2014. Imprinting by design: The microfoundations of entrepreneurial adaptation. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 38(5): 1081-1102.

Davidsson, P., & Honig, B. 2003. The role of social and human capital among nascent entrepreneurs. Journal of Business Venturing, 18(3): 301-331.

Felin, T., & Foss, N. J. 2009. Organizational routines and capabilities: Historical drift and a course-correction toward microfoundations. Scandinavian Journal of Management, 25(2): 157-167.

Howard-Grenville, J. A. 2005. The Persistence of Flexible Organizational Routines: The Role of Agency and Organizational Context. Organization Science, 16(6): 618-636.

Lazaric, N. 2011. Organizational routines and cognition: an introduction to empirical and analytical contributions. Journal of Institutional Economics, 7(2): 147-156.

Lazaric, N., & Raybaut, A. 2005. Knowledge, hierarchy and the selection of routines: an interpretative model with group interactions. Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 15(4): 393-421.

Nelson, R. 2016. Behavior and cognition of economic actors in evolutionary economics. Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 26 (4): 702-737.

Pentland, B. T., & Feldman, M. S. 2008. Designing routines: On the folly of designing artifacts, while hoping for patterns of action. Information and Organization, 18(4): 235-250.

Pentland, B. T., Haerem, T., & Hillison, D. 2010. Comparing organizational routines as recurrent patterns of action. Organization Studies, 31(7): 917-940.

Winter, S. G. 2013. Habit, Deliberation, and Action: Strengthening the Microfoundations of Routines and Capabilities. The Academy of Management Perspectives, 27(2): 120-137.