Per Ingvar Olsen

No Business is an Island: Making Sense of the Interactive Business World p. 213-233 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78714-549-820171012

Journal of International Entrepreneurship 14(3) p. 441-471 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10843-016-0186-8

The aim of this paper is to explain how new technology ventures move, grow, and scale. Such ventures internationalize much faster than depicted by the traditional Uppsala model (Johanson and Vahlne, J Int Bus Stud 8:23–32, 1977; Johanson and Vahlne, Mark Rev 7(4), 1990; Johanson and Vahlne, J Int Entrep 1:83–101, 2003; Johanson and Vahlne, Manag Int Rev 46:165–178, 2006; Oviatt and McDougall, J Int Bus Stud 25:45–64, 1994). According to the Uppsala model, the main reason it takes time is that entrepreneurs need to build networks and learn. Many scholars have investigated how they may be able to learn faster and grow networks more effectively. While these explanations contribute to a better understanding of the process, they appear disturbingly insufficient. By means of an in-depth case study, we aim at identifying how learning and network-building constraints may be circumvented. We have investigated the internationalization process of an invention at a Danish university hospital that became a new technology within minimally invasive heart surgery. While the invention took place in the periphery of the international medical network, the venture circulated to the most competent international science-business networks to mobilize resources and competencies. We found that its ability to succeed resulted from its roots in international academic networks and its connecting to core nodes in these as well as in adequate business networks—including, in particular, Venture Capital firms that are in the business of developing and scaling such technology ventures. We also found that the innovation process evolved through phases that called for different resources and capabilities. It thereby offered opportunities for actors, networks, and companies that control such capabilities to move in to take control and pull the venture through the next phase. The process is less like a long distance run, and more like a relay race. This radically reduces the need to learn as the new venture expands and scales.

Norsk jordbrukspolitikk: handlingsrom i endring p. 179-204

Norsk matmakt i endring p. 87-116

Industrial Marketing Management 45(Feb 2015) p. 207-217 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2015.01.009

In this article we attempt interpreting and conceptualizing the roles of monetary processes and business deals in relation to IMP methodology and theory. This suggests that we have to separate the way the money is handled. We point to the need to analyse the specific situations within which money is involved as “deals”. Each deal has its own history as it is a construction of two interacting firms that are influenced both by the joint social-material value creation processes and the specific features of monetary flows and appropriations of gains and losses that result from these interactions. The money distributive dimension should not be seen as a parallel activity layer of such business interactions - such as we may interpret accounting - but should be seen as a different, related network. We use a single case study to extract interpretations of different deals and deal-structures and use these to discuss the particularities of deals, their various roles and functions, and finally also how we may proceed to better study and theorize the roles of money in relation to IMP network theory.

Journal of Business Research 67(12) p. 2579-2589 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2014.03.017

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the dynamics of networked power in a concentrated business network. Power is a long standing theme in inter-organizational research, yet there is a paucity of studies about how power emerges and is constructed over time at the network level. The paper adopts process, systems and network theory to interpret a rich single case study from the food industry. Three power mechanisms are identified, gatekeeping, decoupling and resource allocation, which form the basis of a model of networked power dynamics. Empirically tracing the dynamics of networked power highlights the economic contents of interactions. The paper extends current understandings of power as ‘conflict and coercion’ to include influencing, leveraging and strategic maneuvering in the actual performance of networked power.

The IMP Journal 7(3) p. 159-170

The IMP Journal Volume 7(2) p. 106-111

The IMP Journal 6(3) p. 186-193

Industrial Marketing Management 41(2) p. 344-356 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2012.01.013

In this paper, we argue that industrial innovation processes can productively be analyzed as consisting of two sub-processes that over time create and mobilize contrary forces within both internal and external interactions of the innovation project. One of these forces emerges from the process of mobilizing resources, activities, and actors in ensuring commitments to the project over time. The other is the process of explorative learning, which continues to create revised or even new propositions about the realities of the project and its opportunities. We argue that this analytical distinction permits us to expand our understanding of how friction forces develop over time in business networks (Håkansson & Waluszewski, 2001ab), the patterns of divergence and convergence in innovation processes as identified by Van de Ven et al. (1999) and the processes of “path creation through mindful deviation” as argued by Garud and Karnøe (2001).

Journal of Business Market Management 5(2) p. 79-105

Philosophy of Management 10(2) p. 53-74 Doi: https://doi.org/10.5840/pom20111025

Process metaphysics (process philosophy) has been suggested as a route, to a more “process-based” approach to organizational studies, as opposed to a “substance-based” view said to be dominant in Western thinking - including most contemporary organizational researchers. This paper explores into some of the ideas of early 20th century process thinkers and provides an interpretation of some of the major work of Alfred N. Whitehead. The objective is to evaluate its possible relevance to modern organizational research. The paper argues that Whitehead’s radical ontology - that was based on a generalization of quantum theory in physics - appears largely to have been refuted or disregarded by succeeding process philosophers. Furthermore, his epistemology is found to represent a process view on scientific knowledge creation taken for granted by most contemporary researchers. For different reasons, major elements of his theories do not appear to be directly relevant to efforts to advance organizational theory into more radical process based theories. On the other hand, the paper argues that the early 20th century process thinkers – including Whitehead - offer a plurality of analytical conceptions that may serve as useful and inspirational contributions to further development of methods and perspectives to investigate into organizations, change and innovation processes. There are also particular approaches within the domain that have properties quite similar to some of those conceptions in process philosophy – like “sensemaking processes” as represented by Karl Weick and others, which may in particular benefit from exploring the area of process philosophy.

Journal of Enterprising Culture 19(4) p. 397-434 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1142/S0218495811000817

This paper employs a novel method for assessing the appropriateness of different types of entrepreneurial education. With the help of cognitive mapping as a research tool, it visualizes entrepreneurship as a skill-and-attitude-demanding activity and compares a generated model of required entrepreneurship capabilities derived from cognitive mapping of engaged entrepreneurs, with mapping of three Scandinavian graduate programmes in entrepreneurship; at BI Norwegian School of Management, University of Oslo and Lund University. The cognitive maps are discussed and compared, focusing on elements that are under- or over-represented in the programmes when compared to our model. Based on our findings, a number of recommendations to people involved in creating and managing entrepreneurship programs are proposed: More attention to selection of students with appropriate attitudes, increased attention to certain under-represented topics (employee management, social networks, marketing and sales skills), more application of experiential and networking approaches, and increased focus on self-learning.

The IMP Journal 5(2) p. 94-106

Steward Clegg and Martin Kronberger (eds.) Space, Organizations and Management Theory

B. Czarniawska & T. Hernes (eds.): Actor-Network Theory and Organizing

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