ACE Research Fellow Scott R. Gordon received a QUT Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Awards for his thesis “Dimensions of the venture creation process: Amount, dynamics, and sequences of action in nascent entrepreneurship”, which was completed in 2012. Gordon’s research question is “Why are some venture creation attempts successful while others are not?” To address this question he uses data from the CAUSEE project. In the most original part of the thesis he applies true process perspective, examining whether the specific order in which a venture creation process is executed affects the outcomes of the process. Previous attempts in this direction have only found a confusing lack of order among a large number of tangible “gestation activities”. Gordon applies a higher degree of abstraction, classifying time-stamped behaviours undertaken in the process as either dealing with “discovery” (conceptual development of the venture and its mission) or “exploitation” (implementation of the imagined new venture). Further, he uses optimal sequencing analysis for the first time ever to entrepreneurship studies. This allows him to find meaningful patterns which inform a core debate in entrepreneurship research: could/should start-ups follow a rational process of pre-planned implementation, or should entrepreneurs rather rush out and “do things” in the market and then adapt according to market feedback? The results clearly suggest that those who follow a “rationalistic” sequence of “completed discovery” followed by linear “exploitation” are not the most successful. However, neither are those whose process shows similarity with random sequences. Instead, the most successful pattern is one where exploitation starts early with a gradual development from discovery-dominance to pure exploitation at later stages. The full thesis is available here. We congratulate Scott on this fine achievement!
Below: Dr.Scott Gordon (second from right) celebrates this prestigious award with his ACE colleagues. 