Researching Entrepreneurship using Phenomenological Methods

Phenomenology as a Method in Entrepreneurship Research

Lecture at the University of Oslo, Center for Entrepreneurship, August 2014

Henrik Berglund Chalmers University of Technology Center for Business InnovaFon

[email protected] www.henrikberglund.com

@khberglund

Agenda

•  What is Entrepreneurship? •  What is Phenomenology? •  Conducting a Phenomenological Study

•  Sampling •  Collecting data •  Analyzing data •  Presenting results

What is Entrepreneurship?

Not small business owner Not founder of new firm Related to innovation and developing new products, services, organizations under conditions of great uncertainty

Old economists knew this

Joseph Schumpeter

“What has been done already has the sharp-edged reality of all things which we have seen and experienced; the new is only the figment of our imagination. Carrying out a new plan and acting according to a customary one are things as different as making a road and walking along it.” (Schumpeter 1934: 85).

Frank Knight “The importance of uncertainty as a factor interfering with the perfect workings of competition in accordance with the laws of pure theory necessitated an examination of foundations of knowledge and conduct. The most important result of this survey is the emphatic contrast between knowledge as the scientist and the logician of science uses the term and the convictions or opinions upon which conduct is based outside of laboratory experiments, [which] have little similarity with conclusions reached by exhaustive analysis and accurate measurement” (Knight 1921: 231).

Current pracFFoners do as well

“a startup is an organization designed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model”

Steve Blank

“A startup is a human institution designed to create a new product or service under conditions of extreme uncertainty”

Eric Ries

Personality traits, behaviors, cognitions or discursive factors. Traits research = largely abandoned Behaviors = PSED etc. ignores individual. Focus

on decontextualized behavior. Cognitions = entrepreneurial action is reduced

down to the sub-conscious Discursive = entrepreneurial action is reduced

up to the social discourse

Common ways of explaining entrepreneurs and their acFons

CogniFve approaches to Entrepreneurship

“Entrepreneurial cognitions are the knowledge structures people use to make assessments, judgments or decisions involving opportunity evaluation, venture creation and growth” (Mitchell et al. 2002).

Discursive approaches to Entrep.

“Rather than to see entrepreneurs as masters of their own creation, entrepreneurial identities are formed in the webs of actualized discourses” (Steyaert 2004)

If entrepreneurship is about creating new things under uncertain conditions, are there essential aspects that research focusing on cognitive mechanisms and discourses miss?

QuesFon

Table from:

Berglund, H.

(2015). Betw

een Cogni9o

n and Disco

urse:

Phenomenolo

gy and the St

udy of Entre

preneurship

.

Interna9ona

l Journal of E

ntrepreneur

ial Behaviour

& Research.

Special Issue

: Embracing Qua

lita9ve Rese

arch Philoso

phies and M

ethods.

Phenomenology?

“The whole universe of science is built upon the world as directly experienced, and if we want to subject science itself to rigorous scrutiny…we must begin by reawakening the basic experience of the world of which science is the second-order expression.” (Maurice Merleau-Ponty 1945, ix)

Phenomenology

“we must go back to the ‘forgotten man’ of the social sciences, to the actor in the social world whose doing and feeling lies at the bottom of the whole system … the safeguarding of the subjective point of view is the only sufficient guarantee that the world of social reality will not be replaced by a fictional non-existing world constructed by the scientific observer.” (Schütz 1964: 7-8)

Phenomenology

“Phenomenological approaches to entrepreneurship seek, as far as possible, an ‘insider’s perspective’ of the phenomenon or episode under investigation. An important part of this ambition is to remain sensitive to ambiguity, complexity and indeterminacy as entrepreneurs conceive of and work through particular phenomena or situations “ Berglund (2015)

Phenomenology and Entrepreneurship

Not only an academic method. Learning how to better understand the lived experiences of others is also extremely valuable for entrepreneurs! Cf. http://www.cindyalvarez.com/lean/10-things-ive-learned-about-customer-development-2014

Phenomenology and Entrepreneurship

What is it like to live with chronic pain? What are the various meanings of feeling “distant” from a loved one? How does it feel to move to a new school as a young adolescent? How does a woman’s sense of identity change during the transition to motherhood?

RQs suitable for phenomenological inquiry

Phenomenology in Context

QualitaFve and QuanFtaFve methods

How do entrepreneurs perceive opportunities? Berglund, H. (2007). Opportunities as Existing and Created: A Study of Entrepreneurs in the Swedish Mobile Internet Industry, Journal of Enterprising Culture. 15(3): 243-273. http://henrikberglund.com/Opportunities.pdf

How do researchers turned entrepreneurs feel about their professional identity? Hellström, T., Hellström, C. and Berglund, H. (2002). The Innovating Self: Exploring Self Among a Group of Technological Innovators, Journal of Managerial Psychology, 17(4): 267-286. http://henrikberglund.com/TheInnovatingSelf.pdf

How is risk experienced and managed by technology entrepreneurs? Berglund, H. and Hellström, T. (2002). Enacting Risk in Independent Technological Innovation, International Journal of Risk Assessment and Management. 3(2/3/4): 205-221. http://henrikberglund.com/EnactingRisk.pdf

RQs suitable for phenomenological inquiry in entrepreneurship

How do founders experience co-founder conflicts? What is it like for CEOs to project confidence in front of their employees, when the startup is close to bankruptcy? How do founders manage work life balance? What is it like for founders to fire underperforming executives?

RQs suitable for phenomenological inquiry in entrepreneurship

ConducFng a Phenomenological Study

with illustraFons from:

http://henrikberglund.com/EnactingRisk.pdf

Sampling Purposive – identify a manageable and fairly homogeneous group of individuals with whom the investigated phenomenon is salient. No given #, but depth over breadth. No need for randomization.

Sampling -‐ example 12 high-tech entrepreneurs distributed across Sweden (information technologies, biotech or advanced services). They had all taken a key role in driving the process of inventing, producing and marketing a technological innovation. Active in their technology-based ventures for at least one year.

Data collecFon Key trade off – be flexible enough to accommodate the richness of the participant’s experience, while staying focused on the RQ and phenomenon. Semi-structured interviews are the exemplary method. They give respondents room to elaborate and also lets the researcher follow respondents’ leads into novel and unexpected areas. Prepare an interview schedule and questions. But only use the schedule as a guide. Important task – establish rapport with subject. Make them feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and feelings. Record and transcribe => captures detail, affords presence.

Data collecFon -‐ example Semi-structured interviews on location in the firms. Average two hours per interview. Two or three interviewers. One leading the interview, the others taking detailed notes. Initial discussions concerned the company and innovation in general but gradually moved towards the issue of risk. Risk was discussed very broadly as related to things like the firm, the innovation and with regard to both the participant as well as to the company and business environment.

Developing an Interview Schedule -‐ Example

Example taken from Smith, J. A., & Osborn, M. (2008). Interpreta<ve Phenomenological Analysis. In J. Smith, Qualita<ve Psychology: A Prac<cal Guide to Research Methods (pp. 53-‐80). London: Sage.

Developing an Interview Schedule

1)  Think about the broad range of issues you want your interview to cover.

2)  Order topics appropriately. What is the most logical order in which to address these issues or areas? Which is the most sensitive area? Go from general to specific.

3)  Think of appropriate questions related to each area.

4)  Think about possible probes and prompts.

Example interview schedule: paFent’s experience of renal dialysis

A.  Dialysis 1)  Could you give me a brief history of your kidney

problem from when it started to your beginning dialysis?

2)  Could you describe what happens in dialysis, in your own words?

3)  What do you do when you are having dialysis? 4)  How do you feel when you are dialysing?

prompt: physically, emotionally, mentally. 5)  What do you think about? 6)  How do you feel about having dialysis?

prompt: some people/relief from previous illness/ a bind.

Example: paFent’s experience of renal dialysis

A.  Dialysis 7)  How does dialysis/kidney disease affect your everyday

life? prompt: work, interests, relationships.

8)  If you had to describe what the dialysis machine means to you, what would you say?

prompt: What words come to mind, what images? Do you have a nickname for it?


B. Identity 1)  How would you describe yourself as a person?

prompt: What sort of person are you? Most important characteristics: happy, moody, nervy.

2)  Has having kidney disease and starting dialysis made a difference to how you see yourself? prompt: If so, how do you see yourself now as different from before you started dialysis? How would you say you have changed?

3)  What about compared to before you had kidney disease?

4)  What about the way other people see you? prompt: members of your family, friends? changed?


C. Coping 1)  What does the term ‘illness’ mean to you? How do

you define it? 2)  How much do you think about your own physical

health? 3)  Do you see yourself as being ill?

prompt: always, sometimes? Would you say you were an ill person?

4)  On a day-to-day basis, how do you deal with having kidney disease (the illness)?

prompt: do you have particular strategies for helping you? ways of coping, practical, mental.

5)  Do you think about the future much?

Structure for interview schedule

A.  Theme 1)  Question

prompt 2)  Question

prompt B.  Theme

1)  Question 2)  Question

C.  Theme 1)  Question 2)  Question

Interview Fps and examples

Be prepared to go off script

If users get worked up – don’t stay on script,

but follow their lead and drill down!

Emo9on = Importance!

Don’t talk

You should be talking as F]le as possible!

Don’t fear ”uncomfortable silence” (let them break it).

80/20 is a good raFo to aim for.

Ask brief prompts and follow-‐ups (remember, they should be takning)

That sounds interes<ng…

Tell me more!

When was the last <me that happened?

Can you give an example?

What do you mean by that?

Can you explain that a liUle more?

How do you feel about that?

Don’t assume things

Bad: You hate conflicts with your co-‐founder!

Good: How do you feel about co-‐founder conflict?

Even BeRer: What was it like the last Fme you had a conflict with your co-‐founder?

Write up results a.s.a.p.

Write upp results and reflecFons

immediately aeer the interview!

Data analysis The interview is transcribed verbatim. The transcript is read and re-read a number of times in order to establish familiarity with the case. As you read, feel free to write down reflections in the margin.

Data analysis After case familiarity is reached, the interview transcript is read line by line and broken down into discrete parts, not according to syntactic rules such as sentences but with respect to visible changes in meaning, i.e. meaning units (MUs). Each MU is then associated with a tentative descriptive concept and broken out of the text.

Data analysis -‐ example

Data analysis When the whole text has been broken down in this way, start from the beginning and cut the first MU out of the original document and pasted into a new document together with a tentative category heading. Continue with the remaining document. Each MU is either put in an existing category or allowed to create its own new category. This process will generate a great number of categories and during the process some categories which are found to be similar will be merged and others will be split up until all MUs had been clustered into categories that capture specific homogeneous aspects of what was said by the participants.

Data analysis 01. Human capital risk 02. (Risk mangement through) opportunistic adaptation 03. Missing the ”business time slot” 04. Driving partnership processes 05. Managing (or creating) risks through partnerships 06. Uniqeness and product competition 07. Risk learning (for the capital market and for the entrepreneur) 08. Positive risktaking and self-efficacy 09. Perception of venture immaturity (lack of substance) 10. Venture incrementalism 11. Force majeure (unexpected events outside of control) 12. Changes in dominant risk logic (sub-category to 07?) 13. Affecting perception of riskyness 14. Lack of time to evaluate decisions 15. Matching partnerships to venture pace 16. The venture as a test-case 17. Affecting human capital 18. External innovation audit 19. Market risk 20. Financing for corporate autonomy 21. Technological prowess (using the strength of the technology) 22. ”First mover” risk 23. Risk administration (dealing with the expected) 24. Opportunity scanning, market pull 25. Piggy-backing 26. Network activation 27. Creating momentum 28. Abundance of slack and lack of coordination

Data analysis The categories and their interrelationships are then focused on in more detail with similar themes being clustered into factors and overarching super-factors.

Data analysis

Data analysis – integraFng mulFple cases

When categories and higher-order factors have been developed for all individual cases, the individual cases are compared. Here you will again allow new categories and higher-order factors to develop. Inclusion in the composit results is not determined by frequency. Richness of particular passages, importance to making sense of the whole etc. are also important when deciding what to include.

Results The results section is a natural extension of the analysis process and contains further interpretive elements. To accomplish a clear distinction between the participants and the researchers, the participants’ accounts can be presented using direct quotes. The style of such a results presentation is shown next. This results section shows how the factor “Creating and sustaining autonomy” is described using the categories “External innovation audits”, “Technological prowess”, “Piggybacking” and “Creation of momentum”.

Results Box 4.1 Crea9ng and sustaining autonomy Several of the interviewed innovators found it useful to utilise different kinds of external innovation audits in order to assure innovative integrity of the venture. One way in which an interviewee achieved this is given in the following quote: “I tried to get my academic colleagues to shoot down the idea on several occasions, but it withstood their attempts. That way I figured the technological risk was accounted for.” Another, more externally oriented version was that: “The most important thing is not to get the product out on the market in a certain space of time, but rather to get an external actor to validate the concept by showing an interest in that particular technology.” Technological prowess is a version of the previous category, where the innovator uses the strength of the technology to achieve autonomy. One example of this was: “The idea is like a shotgun; it’s so versatile that it can be adapted to new applications, if the initially chosen ones for some reason wouldn’t work. These additional exits help minimising the risks.” On the administrative/financial side we have found piggybacking to be the rule rather than the exception. Piggybacking is clearly a commonplace informal strategy for furthering the autonomy of the venture, e.g.: “Too little and too dedicated money is another risk. We took money budgeted by S (public utility) for machine purchases and used part of it for developing the innovation. […] It’s easier to obtain forgiveness than permission.” The last category under this general factor relates to the creation of momentum for purposes of getting into and staying in the race as an autonomous player. One innovator addressed this phenomenon directly and stated that: “In a short period of time we have met numerous VC, recruited personnel, made 350 presentations and presented at eight trade-fairs. This has kept the wheels spinning […] one keeps up the momentum.”

•  What is Entrepreneurship? •  What is Phenomenology? •  Conducting a Phenomenological Study

•  Sampling •  Collecting data •  Analyzing data •  Presenting results

Tack!

Researching Entrepreneurship using Phenomenological Methods

Education

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