150th Estrad lecture
Moving entrepreneurship forward
Entrepreneurship in health care
sectors
– Area of interest for
Caroline Wigren-Kristoferson
A unique time in history
• The Act on System of Choice in the Public
Sector (2008:962) entered into force on 1
January 2009.
– Open up for private actors to enter the market
– County councils and municipalities
– Users choose service providers within the system
• A monopoly is broken up, which according to
Schumpeter is defined as entrepreneurship.
• A market with a lot of small firms on the
market, and a very few very large firms - in
between there is a void.
• Have had the opportunity to follow a group of
midwifes who have started private firms,
delivering publicly financed health care.
Tend to identify with what they are
doing in everyday life.
What they do help them to create their identities.
• A wish from policy makers that we would see
a diversity of new actors on the market
delivering publicly financed health care
services.
• Only the beginning… A lot will probably
happen in the health and care sectors.
• People leave public organizations to start a
firm because they want to perform the service
in a different way.
• It seems to be a challenge for the
entrepreneurs to perceive themselves as
entrepreneurs. So the questions to discuss
are:
– What can I /we /policy makers do if we want to
support entrepreneurship in the sector, if we aim
at a sector that consists of a diversity of actors,
not only large VC-owned actors?
– How can I continue my journey and study identity
construction among the entrepreneurs in the
sector, what do you suggest?
Entrepreneurial Orientation: Too
Much of a Good Thing
Vinit Parida
Assistant Professor
Center for Interorganizational Innovation Research (CiiR)
Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Luleå University of Technology
Source: Wales, J.W., Patel, C.P., Parida, V. & Kreiser, P.M. (forthcoming), Non-linear Effects of Entrepreneurial
Orientation on Small Firm Performance: The Moderating Role of Resource Orchestration Capabilities, Strategic
Entrepreneurship Journal.
Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO)

“strategy-making practices, management philosophies, and
firm level behaviors that are entrepreneurial in nature”

Key knowledge voids remain regarding this relationship in
the context of small firms (i.e. less than 50 employees) due
to mixed results

Examining the potential curvilinear nature of relationship
between EO-performance

At low to moderate level of EO (Benefits out weights costs)





Proactiveness
Risk-taking
Discovery of new entry through proactive search process
Less resource intensive and manageable new entry opportunities
Less risky- incremental innovations
At high levels of EO (Costs out weights benefits)


Innovativeness
Firm
Growth
Simultaneous experiments would stretch recourses base
Extensive ‘bold strokes’ or ‘courageous moves’ through radical
innovations
Symbolic use of market intelligence for satisfying entrepreneurial
agenda
Entrepreneurial
Orientation
Hypothesis1: The relationship between EO and firm
performance is inverted U-shaped for small firms
Moderating Effects
 ICT capability refers to the extent to which a firm is able to utilize ICT to
improve its overall business processes (i.e. efficiency)
 Streamline business processes and reduce cost of production
 Reduce cost associated with product development (e.g. virtual prototyping)
 Facilities internal external information exchange, leading to entrepreneurial alertness
 Network capability refers to a firm’s ability to use of inter-organizational
relationships to gain access to various resources held by other actors (i.e.
effectiveness)




Connecting to new and diverse actors enable improved ability to develop innovations
Greater partner knowledge sharing reduces knowledge asymmetry
Reduce transaction costs through lowering likelihood of opportunistic behavior
Improved ability to take strategic decisions about new market enter
Hypotheses 2 & 3: ICT capability and Network capability
positively moderates the curvilinear relationships between EO
and small firm performance
Interpretation of Inverted
U-shaped Relationship Tests
Non-linear Moderating
Effects of Capabilities
Theoretical Contributions

EO-performance relationship dose not hold indefinitely for small
firms
 On average a low to moderate levels of EO produces the highest growth
(e.g. low inflection points)

Based on resource orchestration theory, the optimal level of EO vary
as a function of organizational capabilities (i.e. ICT and network
capabilities)
 Moderate level is not always optimal

Both capabilities play important role in maximizing the utility of EO
in small firms
 Pursuing higher levels of EO requires higher levels of ICT capability and
network capability
Managerial Contributions
 When not possessing critical organizational capabilities,
increased level of EO can be less beneficial or even harmful
 Post-hoc analysis: Size of small firm plays strong influencing
role on EO-performance relationship
 Managers need to balance EO with ICT capability, network
capability, and firm size to best enhance performance
Entrepreneurial Orientation: Is it Too Much
of a Good Thing?
Thank You!
For more information contact: Vinit Parida (vinpar@ltu.se)
Innovation beyond
Product Development
Maria Elmquist,
Esbri Estrad, 12-12-12
Associate Professor, PhD.
Center for Business Innovation
Div. of Innovation Engineering and Management
Chalmers University of Technology
maria.elmquist@chalmers.se
Maria Elmquist - Estrad - 121212
16
Innovation
 Something new /knowledge/technology) that
creates new value for customers or the
producing firm when it reaches the market.
 Large firm focus: efficiency (lean!)
 Claim to work with innovation
 Innovation =/= R&D
 Innovation Capabilities
Toyota Prius
Maria Elmquist - Estrad - 121212
17
My research interest:
Innovation Capabilities (IC)
 The firm’s ability to deploy its available resources
to generate and appropriate value in new ways
 System view rather than process (resources,
processes, mindset)
 Strategic intent
 External relations
 Managerial capabilities
 IC are “innovation muscles”
Maria Elmquist - Estrad - 121212
18
Main research questions:
 How can the development of innovation
capabilities be organized?
 How can the development of innovation
capabilities be managed?
 How can companies open
up their innovation processes?
Maria Elmquist - Estrad - 121212
19
For the discussion
 How can large firms learn from entrepreneurial
processes (and vice versa)?
 How can we study capabilities?
 What role can/should researchers play?
Maria Elmquist - Estrad - 121212
20
Gaseller –
vad vet vi
och
vad vet vi inte?
Karl Wennberg
Handelshögskolan i Stockholm
Näringslivets forskningsinstitut Ratio
Varför är gaseller viktiga?
En liten grupp snabbväxande företag
skapar nästan hela nettotillväxten av jobb
(Henrekson & Johansson, 2010)
Anställer ofta individer utan “exakt rätt”
kompetens men med “rätt attityd”
(Coad, Daunfeldt, Johansson & Wennberg, 2012;
Hamilton & Danell, 2012)
Gaseller finns i alla branscher och
regioner, dock ojämnt fördelade
(Delmar & Wennberg, 2010)
Vikten av Gaseller
Kompetenser
Gaseller?
Policy slutsatser
Marknadsfokus
Gaseller…hur ser de ut?
Ledaregenskaper
• Ofta påbörjad (men inte alltid avslutad) högskoleutbildning
• Ofta gedigen branscherfarenhet
(Andersson, Efendic, Wennberg, 2012)
•
Företagsegenskaper
• Samtliga branscher: I Sverige allt vanligare med tjänsteföretag
(t.ex. bemanningsföretag)
• Ofta en professionell styrelse
• Internt genererade vinstmedel
• Ibland höga marginaler, men varierar stort (Markman & Gartner, 2002)
Vikten av Gaseller
Kompetenser
Gaseller?
Policy slutsatser
Marknadsfokus
Kompetensutveckling oftast intern
Starkt fokus på
rekrytering
Strategier som
centrerar runt de
anställda
Vikten av Gaseller
Viss
kompetensutveckling
vid behov
Gasellerna utvecklar interna
kompetenser, framförallt
genom rekrytering
“passa in” viktigast,
formell utbildning /
erfarenhet mindre viktigt
Det svåraste:
"Att hitta rätt folk"
(Hamilton & Danell, 2012)
Kompetenser
Gaseller?
Policy slutsatser
Marknadsfokus
Success factor? Marknadsfokus
Marknadskunskap hos
gasellerna ger
konkurrensfördelar
Flexibilitet att ta
marknadsandelar och
rekrytera nyckelpersonal
även under
lågkonjunktur
Vikten av Gaseller
Möjliggör flytt till
en attraktiv position
på marknaden
Anställda flyttas till
efterfrågade nischer
Kunderna kommer
för hjälp att hantera
marknaden
Ger kunderna exakt
det de ville ha
Kompetenser
Gaseller?
Policy slutsatser
Marknadsfokus
Slutsatser
Snabbväxare
viktiga
Kunskap
Saknas
Interdisciplinaritet
viktigt
Slumpen?
• 4% av alla företag skapar 50% av alla nya jobb
• Begränsad forskning om både interna och externa
förutsättningar för gaselltillväxt
• Human Resources, Strategy, Organization, Economics,
Dynamic Systems, Networks, etc.
• Inte alltid mer lönsamma, få uppvisar uthållig tillväxt
(Halvarsson & Daunfeldt, 2011;
Markman & Gartner, 2002)
Vikten av Gaseller
Policy slutsatser
Kompetenser
Gaseller?
Marknadsfokus
Frågor / kommentarer?
Tack…
…Nils Karlson, Henrik Lindberg, Elina Fergin, Markus
Danell & Sebastian Hamilton (Ratio)
…Nedim Efendic (Handelshögskolan)
…Sven-Olov Daunfeldt & Dan Johansson (HUI)
…Andreas Nilses (DI)
…Erkko Autio (Imperial College)
…Johan Wiklund (Syracuse)
…Frederic Delmar (Lund)
…Alex Coad (University of Sussex)
…Anna Öhrwall Rönnbäck (Linköping University)
…Erik Stam (Utrecht University)
Och Tack…
Ragnar Söderbergs Stiftelse
Handelsbankens Forskningsstiftelser
FORES
VINNOVA