The strategy of the organisation and its entrepreneur’s expectations of the organisation should be aligned in order to create an environment in which all entrepreneurs are motivated and work towards common goals. Furthermore, the entrepreneur’s life stages and personal life plans should be synchronised with the needs of the organisation to achieve the goals. As organisations pass through different stages of growth; they require different resources to assist in progression to next stages. As with organisations and their growth phases; entrepreneurs also undergo growth stages in many different areas of their lives. Entrepreneurs being individuals each have their own set of characteristics in terms of personality, leadership style, entrepreneurship type, skills, life stage and career stages. The challenge of an organisation is to create a strategy that best matches the expectations of all the entrepreneurs and members. The resources of the organisation need to be aligned in order to achieve the common strategy. The problem is as to how the organisation makes use of its leaders and entrepreneurs to achieve strategy; and how does it deal with inconsistencies in goals of entrepreneurs and shortfalls of specific skills or resources that it will require to sustain or grow the organisation?

It was the objective of this thesis to examine both the entrepreneur and entrepreneurial activities from a behavioral viewpoint. Essentially, this was an attempt to establish a perspective of this type of individual, which would be dyanmic, adaptable to a broad range of entrepreneurial situations, and devoid of many of the conceptual limitations often applied to the entrepreneur and his activities. It was assumed as a basis for reasoning that the establishment of this perspective would allow the entrepreneur to be seen as continuing his role as a vital force in economic growth in an age of rapid change and relative non-permanence. It is an age characterized among other things by increasingly large scale organizations, emphasis on efficiency, and an evolving social ethic. The study itself is broad in its acceptance of ideas from other sources. Accordingly, the steps following in the investigation were as follows: (1) A definitive outline was developed of hypothesized entrepreneurial functions, motivations, attitudes, and behavior patterns. This outline was based on selected studies of the traditional independent entrepreneur in particular and other studies making reference to the entrepreneurial type individual in general. (2) An examination was made of various structural and operational features often associated with relatively large scale organizations, and deemed to be potentially consuming to individualistic entrepreneurial type behavior. It was intended that this examination establish a perspective of the large scale business organization which would facilitate the understanding of the development of the organizational entrepreneurial type individual. The examination itself was based on selected studies of management and large scale organizations. (3) A comparative presentation was made of an hypothesized organizational entrepreneur based on the findings of selected studies of a particular managerial mode of behavior in large business organizations. The presentation was made in such a way as to be easily comparable with the definitive outline of the entrepreneur provided previously, and was qualified by certain organizational features examined in the thesis prior to this comparative presentation. (4) An examination was made of entrepreneurial evolution from the viewpoint of its value to the attainment of the goals of a free enterprise Western society. The examination was based on the hypothesis that the appearance of the organizational entrepreneur represented entrepreneurial evolution. Selected studies arguing evolution of the business sector and the managerial requirements of this process of change were used as references. (5) A presentation was made of possible methods of encouraging the development of the entrepreneurial type individual by aligning the methods of encouragement with the motivations, attitudes, and behavior patterns hypothesized as being entrepreneurial throughout the thesis. The general conclusions arrived at in this thesis are that: (1) There is a similarity in the motivations, attitudes, and behavior patterns with respect to business activity, between the traditional independent entrepreneur as defined in this thesis and a type of executive defined as an organizational entrepreneur in this thesis and found in large scale business organizations. (2) The basic similarities in the motivations, attitudes, and behavior patterns of the traditional independent entrepreneur as defined and the organizational entrepreneur as defined, indicate that the entrepreneur is subject to a process of evolution just as is the business environment. (3) It is both beneficial and possible to encourage the development of the organizational entrepreneurial type individual by understanding and appealing to the motivations, attitudes, and behavior patterns of this type of individual. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

M.B.A.

Fundamentally, entrepreneurship is about acting under uncertainty. For entrepreneurial firms willing to bear the risks of developing novel innovations from new technology knowledge, that uncertainty is amplified. To succeed at launching innovations that could bring industry and technology change, these firms need significant resources, time, and technology development, but they are weak, under-resourced, and dependent on funders and partners to survive. Entrepreneurial firms are theorized and advised to be flexible, unencumbered by the organizational inertia that limits their established counterparts and therefore able to adapt. Yet, we understand little about how these firms manage the uncertainties they face. In this dissertation, I explore how and why entrepreneurial firms developing novel technology evolve their strategies and technology products. The research study for this dissertation is a multi-year longitudinal field study of strategy and technology product evolution at seven early stage energy and cleantech hardware firms. In the first paper, I examine when and how entrepreneurial firms decide to make strategic change and when that change constitutes a ‘pivot’. In the second paper, I examine how entrepreneurial technology firms in a dynamic and uncertain context learn from the process of choosing not to change their strategies. Lastly, in the third paper, I examine how these entrepreneurial firms manage the challenges of partnering with established firms to develop their novel technologies. This dissertation contributes to the entrepreneurship, strategy, and technology innovation literatures with a grounded theoretical understanding how early stage technology firms manage uncertainty through strategic change, learning, and interorganizational relationships.

This dissertation consists of three essays examining how new ventures acquire knowledge and how the acquisition of knowledge influences new venture outcomes. In Essay 1, I focus on how network connections affect entrepreneur’s knowledge of the value of their idea and their decision to quit or persist. In Essay 2, I focus on knowledge diversity between the founding team and their peers, and how the interaction of knowledge affects quitting, acquisitions, and funding. In Essay 3, I focus on how a venture’s need for external knowledge and experience change over time as the venture develops. The first essay focuses on how entrepreneurs’ networks may affect their assessment of their venture’s potential and their decision to quit. I examine founder networks in entrepreneurial accelerator cohorts, and find that central ventures whose founding teams have greater access to information are more likely to quit. Consistent with my predictions, the results suggest that better access to information helps reduce uncertainties regarding the expected future returns of the venture. Similar to Lerner and Malmendier (2013), my findings suggest that with more information, founding teams revise expected future returns to a lower level than previously estimated, and this increases the likelihood that the venture will cease operations. I also find that the effect of network information on quitting is weakened by other internal and external sources of information. Specifically, the usefulness of information from networks and the likelihood of quitting diminishes when the entrepreneurs have prior founding experience and when the venture receives more external attention. Overall, this study sheds light on competing sources of information for new ventures and its implications for important firm outcomes. The second essay investigates how access to specific types of knowledge affects both new venture learning and competition, which influences the outcome trajectory of the venture. I find that the relative similarity between the founding team’s prior knowledge and the distribution of knowledge in the broader cohort influences venture outcomes. I find that startup teams with a high share of technical backgrounds in cohorts with a high share of founders with technical backgrounds are more likely to exit via quitting or acquisition, while technical teams in a cohort with a high share of entrepreneurial experience are also more likely to get VC funding. Similarly, startup teams with a high share of business backgrounds in a cohort with a high share of founders with business backgrounds are less likely to get VC funding, while the same team in a technical cohort is more likely to get VC funding. Overall, I highlight the significance of different types of knowledge – on the part of the founding teams and their peers—in shaping the ability of startups to navigate critical decisions regarding exit and financing. The third essay explores the type of expertise and connections founders bring in through the appointment of early directors and how this evolves over time. I argue that as new ventures face pressures to rapidly learn and evolve, it must be the case that they seek out different types of expertise along the way. But we have no systematic evidence of who they seek out, when they seek them, and the mechanisms through which this occurs. Using data on the human and social capital of board members in 1,200 new ventures in the Computer Software industry, I develop several stylized findings. I find several systematic patterns in the experience and connections of directors appointed over time as ventures move through different stages of development. / Business Administration/Strategic Management

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 218-224).

Dissertation (MPhil) -- AUT University, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references. Also held in print (xiv, 262 leaves ; 30 cm.) in the Archive at the City Campus (T 338.040711 LOC)

Many studies have revealed that training contributes significantly in the growth of enterprises. Training adds to the skills of SMMEs' owners, change their behaviour on how they perceive and conduct business activities and in turn enhance their ability to perform better. This dissertation investigates impact of entrepreneurship skills training and education as one of the factors that will help in both the survival and sustainability of SMMEs serviced by Gauteng Enterprise Propeller (GEP) in South Africa (SA). It highlights problems of the current entrepreneurship skills training and education by delineating the weakness and pitfalls. The relevant literature has been visited and served as a primary data that add value to the dissertation. Collation of the relevant data is followed by a discussion of the impact of entrepreneurship skills training and education as one of the factors that will help in both the survival and sustainability of SMMEs. The relative lack of research on impact of entrepreneurship skills training and education is the primary impetus of this study. The sample was drawn from SMMEs who attended entrepreneurship skills training offered by Gauteng Enterprise Propeller. The majority of the respondents were cooperatives in Johannesburg, South Africa. The study findings indicate that the entrepreneurship skills training have the following five major deficiencies: there is deficiency in entrepreneurship skills training and education; lack of involvement in the training program; lack of quality in training; training not being relevant to organizational needs; and lack of training programs. It is suggested that GEP management should explore opportunities to ensure that the training addresses business needs; involve trainees in training evaluation to improve quality; improve the effectiveness of training and its impact; and ensure that respondents are trained on formulation of training programs and policy to address organisational needs. / Thesis (MBA) North-West University, MAfikeng Campus, 2011

Thesis (PhD) - Swinburne University of Technology, 2006. / Submitted in fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Swinburne University of Technology - 2006. Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (p. 309-327).

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Regensburg, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 189-229).