As evidence of the growing interest in Austrian economics within management studies, note these sessions or papers at upcoming meetings of the major academic management societies, the Academy of Management (Boston, August 3-7) and the Strategic Management Society (Prague, October 6-9):
Austrian Economics & Creative Destruction Facilitator: Peter Klein, University of Missouri Austrian Economics in Organization Studies: How Austrian Ideas Contribute to Strategy, Entrepreneurship, and Related Areas Todd Chiles, University of Missouri-Columbia Sara Soares Traquina Alves Elias, University of Missouri - Columbia Mark Packard, University of Missouri Dominant Designs and New Firms Tianxu Chen, Oakland University VK Narayanan, Drexel University Exploring the Effect of Entrepreneurial Autonomy on Managerial Participation in Knowledge Networks Michael Strenge, University of Freiburg Olaf Rank, University of Freiburg Revisiting Market-Level Competition: The Perspective from Low-Cost Entrants Terence Fan, Singapore Management University The Slow Death of Old Media: Examining Social Networking and the Competitive Terrain of News Layla Branicki, University of Warwick Doreen Agyei, Warwick Business School Beyond Discovery and Creation: Opportunities in Entrepreneurship Research Coordinator: Henrik Berglund; Chalmers U. of Technology; Presenter: William B. Gartner; Clemson U.; Coordinator: Steffen Korsgaard; Aarhus U.; Coordinator: Kåre Sven Moberg; Copenhagen Business School; The aim of the workshop is to inspire discussion and development in relation to the concept of opportunities in entrepreneurship research. Recent years has seen the emergence of numerous diverging views on the nature of opportunities. Reviews have conceptualized the debate as a dichotomous confrontation between two views: discovery and creation. This dichotomous framing has been helpful in bringing out a number of decisive questions and challenges for entrepreneurship research, yet also suffers from serious drawbacks in particular in so far as it overlooks alternative views and exaggerates the internal homogeneity of the discovery and creation views. Also, the two views as presented in reviews do not readily lend themselves to empirical research. In light of this situation, we propose this PDW to inquire into the problems and potentials of using the opportunity concept in entrepreneurship research with a particular view to moving beyond the discovery-creation dichotomy. We expect this to enhance our understanding of opportunities and the entrepreneurial process. To accomplish this, the PDW is organized to ensure interaction and discussion among participants. First, the format and purpose of the workshop will be introduced by the sponsors, including a brief review of relevant research. Thereafter, the participants will break up into smaller groups to discuss a number of more specific issues. The PDW ends with a concluding discussion where the different groups are invited to reporting back the results of their discussions. ENT: Political Ties, Institutional Environment and Opportunity Recognition in a Transition Economy Author: Xinglu Zhao; Sun Yat-sen U.; Author: Jianqi Zhang; Sun Yat-sen U.; Author: Jun Wu; Sun Yat-sen U.; Author: Xi Li; Sun Yat-sen U.; From the perspective of Austrian school of entrepreneurship and institutional theory, we suggest that building and utilizing political ties facilitates entrepreneurial opportunity recognition through acquiring timely institution-related information and government officials’ experiential advices in transition economies. A survey of 301 corporate executives in Pearl River Delta district in China supported our viewpoint. In addition, due to the potential substitutive effects between informal guanxi and formal institution environment, we further found political ties’ positive association with opportunity recognition is stronger under high level of regulative volatility, but is, unexpectedly, irrelevant with legal enforceability. In conclusion, this article not only highlights the crucial role of institutional theory perspective on social networks and opportunity recognition, but also provides new empirical evidence for understanding opportunity-based entrepreneurship in a transition economy. BPS: Corporate Political Activity as Competitive Action Author: Bruce C. Rudy; U. of Texas, San Antonio; Author: Andrew Franklin Johnson; U. of Texas, San Antonio; This research seeks to understand the relationship between a firm’s market and nonmarket strategy by examining whether firms respond to performance shortfalls in the market environment by engaging in greater levels of corporate political action in the nonmarket environment. Building on arguments from Austrian economics, we argue that corporate political activity represents a competitive action available to firms seeking to gain competitive advantage. Our findings suggest that firms are more likely to engage in nonmarket strategic behaviors when they experience market share erosion. That is, we find that firms are likely to engage in greater levels of federal lobbying and are more likely to promote internal lobbyists to levels of greater authority in years in which they lose market share. These findings, based on 27 years of data from large U.S. firms, contribute to research on corporate political activity and competitive dynamics.
