Accentuating the role of managerial cognition in business model design, scholarly work recently conceptualizes business models as cognitive phenomenon reflecting managerial mental models. However, this theoretical position has been largely criticized for its emphasis on the limitations of human cognition, resulting in studies that explore the manifestation of cognitive constraints. To further advance the conceptualization of business models as cognitive structures, this dissertation focuses on the cognitive heuristics undergirding managerial reasoning to counter cognitive biases inherent in the design of new business models. Providing implications for research at the intersection of cognition and business model design, our studies are situated in the context of corporate entrepreneurship initiatives, spawning the entrepreneur at the nexus of individual and idiosyncratic context.:1 Introduction 2 Theoretical framework 2.1 Theoretical perspectives in business model research 2.2 Cognitive view in business model research 3 Scientific contribution 3.1 Article I: Not all are equal – Linking dominant and emergent business model logics in corporate entrepreneurship initiatives 3.2 Article II: Corporate entrepreneurship initiatives: Antagonizing cognitive biases in business model design 3.3 Article III: Situated entrepreneurial cognition in corporate incubators and accelerators: The business model as a boundary object List of appendices Bibliography

La phase d’idéation constitue les premiers grands pas d’itération dans le processus de design. Elle est dans une position d’amorce propice pour influencer fortement la direction des propositions conceptuelles fondatrices des projets et leur raffinement ultérieur. Ainsi, la possibilité d’intervenir sur la démarche du travail d’idéation présente une excellente occasion d’inclure et d’outiller des participants non-professionnels du design de manière à leur accorder un rôle qui outrepasse celui de personnes ordinairement consultées qu’en aval. Cependant, les formes de représentation traditionnellement employées pendant le processus d’idéation introduisent un décalage important entre la manière courante de vivre les environnements et la manière de les penser lors de leur conception, un décalage où le contexte de l’activité de conception marque une rupture vis-à-vis le contexte préexistant du projet. Nous proposons d’explorer l’utilisation de la représentation photogrammétrique immersive de contextes en réalité virtuelle (RV) – i.e. la numérisation spatio-visuelle d’environnements réels en tant que modèles 3D – comme piste de réponse aux problèmes soulevés par les représentations traditionnelles. Dès lors, une question se pose : quelle incidence porte la RV sociale et sans lunette, couplée à la photogrammétrie immersive du contexte du projet de design, sur la cognition de design des collaborateurs lors de la co-idéation ? Partant du design comme processus social où s’opère une négociation collaborative, nous identifions l’expression verbale comme principal outil des designers et l’expression graphique par la production d’esquisses comme mode complémentaire de communication et de réflexion. Toutefois, en approchant l’activité de design sous l’angle d’une activité fondamentalement cognitive, et plus spécifiquement dans le cadre de la cognition incarnée, la gestuelle ressort comme troisième mode essentiel pour peindre un portrait plus détaillé du rôle de la représentation contextuelle immersive en design. Nous proposons une étude comparative entre trois différentes conditions de travail observées lors des séances d’un atelier de design industriel universitaire : (i) la co-idéation en atelier traditionnel avec papier et crayon, (ii) la co-idéation en RV sans contexte, et (iii) en RV avec contexte 3D immersif. Nous avons retenu 21 enregistrements audio-vidéos (environ 20 minutes chaque) pour l’analyse, soit : un par condition pour sept équipes de trois collaborateurs. Sur le plan verbal, les séquences observées ont été segmentées puis codées selon le cadre des conversations de design. Notre codage de la gestuelle organise quant à lui chaque occurrence de geste co-discours selon le caractère dominant parmi les types communément distingués dans la littérature (organisationnel, déictique, iconique, et métaphorique) ; puis précise diverses caractéristiques intra-gestuelles dont la deixis de mise en place. En opérationnalisant ainsi la deixis gestuelle selon un ancrage disjoint ou conjoint de l’imagerie gestuelle avec la représentation graphique utilisée, nous mettons au jour les moments de dissociation ou de symbiose de la cognition de design avec les différents types de représentation. Les résultats indiquent que, malgré des processus de co-idéation semblables au niveau des dynamiques de conversation, la production d’esquisse est la moins fréquente en RV avec contexte, mais que dans cette même condition les gestes iconiques spontanés sont presque trois fois plus souvent liés à la représentation (64%) qu’en RV sans contexte (24%) et en papier et crayon (20%). Nous interprétons ces résultats comme l’annonce d’un processus créatif qui se retrouve, à ses fondements, plus souvent marié à l’expérience de l’environnement visuo-spatial représenté lorsqu’un modèle contextuel immersif est utilisé. Les résultats de l’analyse des gestes déictiques nous mènent aussi à explorer l’idée de qualités cognitivement plus affordantes pour le support de ce qui paraît être une perception « augmentée », où les participants projettent plus fréquemment des éléments imaginés dans la représentation lorsqu’en RV avec contexte. / The ideation phase constitutes the first great iterative steps in the design process. Holding a launch position in the process, this phase encompasses developments that can have a strong influence on the creative directions of the core conceptual propositions and their subsequent refinements. Thus, one can foresee the possibility of revisiting some of the common tools and practices ideation adheres to as an access-point to foster participation from people of varied backgrounds beyond a passive stance of providing input on propositions conceived upstream. Yet, the forms of representation traditionally put in place throughout the ideation process induce a significant gap between the way we live environments in our daily experiences – at their reception – and the way they are reflected upon, grasped and imagined during their conception, a shift that tends to bear with it a rupture from the pre-existing contexts of projects. We propose to explore the use of immersive photogrammetric representations of contexts in virtual reality (VR) – where photogrammetry implies visuo-spatial scanning, or digitization, of actual environments to produce textured 3D models – as a means to overcome these problems of traditional representations. One can then ask: what influence does headset-free social VR have on the design cognition of collaborators during co-ideation when coupled with the immersive photogrammetric representation of the design project’s context? Viewing the design process as an inherently social one where takes place a collaborative negotiation, we identify verbal expression as the primary tool of designers and graphical expression, through the production of sketches, as a complementary mode of communication and reflection. However, moving to a cognitive view of the design activity, more specially under the lens of embodied cognition, gesturing emerges as a third fundamental mode to in a quest to depict a more detailed portrait of the role of immersive contextual representations in design. This research is structured as a comparative study contrasting three studio conditions observed during the sessions of an undergraduate level industrial design studio: (i) the traditional pen and paper design studio, (ii) collaborative VR without context, and (iii) collaborative VR with 3D immersive context. A total of 21 audio-video recordings (around 15 to 20 minutes each) were analyzed, corresponding to one per condition for each of seven teams of three collaborators. Verbal-wise, the observed session recordings were segmented and coded according to the design conversations framework. Gesture-wise, every occurrence of co-speech gesturing was defined and organized according to the dominant dimension among the types commonly established in literature (organisational, deictic, iconic, and metaphoric) before being coded with various intra-gestural characteristics including their deixis of enaction. Through this characterisation of gestures’ deixis, operationalized as the independent or joint anchoring of gestural imagery with the graphical representation at hand, we reveal the instances of dissociation or symbiosis of the participants’ design cognition with the different representational setups. Results indicate that, despite similar co-ideation processes in terms of verbal dynamics, sketching is least used in VR with context, yet in this same condition spontaneous iconic gestures were observed to be representation-dependant (anchored) nearly three times (64%) the proportions observed in VR without context (24%) and pen and paper (20%). We interpret these results as highlighting a creative process that is, at its foundations, notably more often wed to the experience of the represented environment when an immersive contextual model is used. Furthermore, our analysis of deictic gestures also confronts us with the idea of greater affordance for supporting what appears to be a form of “augmented” perception, where participants more frequently project mentally imagined elements in the representation when in VR with context.

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Designers often look for inspiration in their environment when exploring possible solutions to a given problem. However, many studies have reported that external stimuli may constrain designers’ imagination and limit their exploration to similar solutions, a phenomenon described as design fixation. Inspiration and fixation effects are traditionally studied with a similar experimental paradigm, which has produced a complex web of findings and explanations. Yet, when analysing the experiments and their findings closely, it becomes clear that there is considerable variation in how studies are conducted and the results they produce. Such variation makes it difficult to formulate a general view of how external stimuli affect the design process, and to translate the research findings into education and practice. Moreover, it raises questions about the reliability and effectiveness of the traditional experimental method. This thesis reports on a collection of studies that examine how design inspiration and fixation research is done and how it can be improved. It explores the research area by reviewing the literature and analysing data from a workshop; describes the research method by scrutinising experiments and their procedures; and explains the variation in research findings by testing experimental procedures empirically and suggesting new interpretations. My main findings are that: abstract stimuli can inspire or fixate designers to different degrees depending on how explicitly the stimuli are represented; external stimuli can inhibit the exploration of ideas that would otherwise be explored; the effect of experimental instructions varies depending on how encouraging the instructions are; and the way participants represent and elaborate ideas can moderate fixation results. Whilst this thesis offers insights into design practice and education, its main contribution is to design research, where it represents a fundamental material for those who are new to inspiration and fixation research, and for those who are already expert.