Entrepreneurship as Venture Design: Unravelling the Journey from Opportunity Artifact to Ecosystem Impact

Abstract

Entrepreneurship and Design [E&D] are two inherently human processes that pursue future value through the introduction of innovative artifacts into a sociotechnical and economic ecosystem. Historical parallels between these two fields have led to their increasing convergence in the 21st century, giving rise to the Design Science of Entrepreneurship [DSE]. This nascent subfield proposes that entrepreneurship research is a science of the artificial, that entrepreneurship practice is a form of design, and that opportunities are abstract, epistemic artifacts that motivate and guide the instantiation of a concrete venture. These proposals both shape the DSE agenda and provide the context for the present thesis, which seeks to further the theorisation of 'entrepreneurship-as-design' [EaD] by uncovering causal relationships between the generative mechanisms of design and the sensemaking, practices, artifacts, and ecosystem impacts of venture creation. Until now, the literature has yet to circumscribe and model EaD as a design process. This gap informs the thesis' central research question, namely: How do Entrepreneurs Design Ventures? Integration of E&D theory allowed elaboration of conceptual frameworks for: a) the value cycle as the basic procedure of EaD; b) the typology of practices and spaces comprising the EaD process; and c) the anatomical components and structure of the opportunity artifact. These frameworks were supported by a typification of design mechanisms relevant to EaD, and specific forms of individual, organisational, and ecosystem-level value acting as indicators of venture impact. Theoretically derived frameworks were tested during two empirical studies conducted in the distinct sociocultural contexts of Chile and the United Kingdom. Data were captured at two time points from entrepreneurs with and without backgrounds in design. Adopting a design science epistemology, a critical realist ontology, and the lens of process theory, the two studies employed a mixed methodology combining qualitative methods, mathematical techniques, and methods exapted from design research. Each step of the data collection, preparation, and analysis procedure involved the instantiation of artifacts. This allowed moving from retrospective experiences and outcomes of an entrepreneurial journey; through the sequence of entrepreneurial actions and artifacts that enabled a venture's instantiation; towards the retroductive inference of design mechanisms whose enactment in structured combinations effected change in the opportunity artifact being pursued and long-term venture impact. In answering its central research question, the thesis advances the DSE agenda by theorising entrepreneurship as a specialised design process involving specific mechanisms, sensemaking, practices, spaces, artifacts, and impacts. The thesis defines and articulates causal relationships between these components, which collectively comprise a conceptually robust, empirically supported theory of 'Venture Design'. By identifying parallels between the mechanisms, processes, and artifacts of E&D, the thesis establishes a solid foundation to also theorise 'design-as-entrepreneurship'. Finally, by exploring the interrelated sociocultural roles that E&D have played throughout human history, the thesis determines that not only is entrepreneurship a form of design, but that without the inherently human design process, there would be no entrepreneurship. Show more