About
85
Publications
40,507
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
2,723
Citations
Citations since 2017
Introduction
I’m a social scientist trying to do useful research, mostly at the intersection of human enterprise, social issues and natural environments. With a focus on engaged scholarship, I explore 1. How individuals and communities use entrepreneurial practices to overcome challenging circumstances and create better futures and 2. the idea of impact-in-process, to bring research impact into the core of social science research.
Additional affiliations
February 2019 - June 2021
University of Liverpool
Position
- Professor
February 2018 - January 2019
September 2017 - January 2018
Education
September 2010 - September 2013
September 2009 - September 2010
January 2007 - December 2007
Universidad de Lleida
Field of study
- Business Management and Organisation, Majoring in International Business
Publications
Publications (85)
This paper examines the development process of sustainable ventures by focusing on three substantive markers, namely the ideas, actions, and exchange relationships articulated and instigated by the entrepreneurs in question. Based on data from 45 sustainability-oriented new ventures, it examines the causal configurations behind the manifestations o...
Pressure on infrastructure associated with growing urban populations, the ubiquity of new technologies and collaborative business models are making way for a new form of entrepreneurship focused on addressing quality of life in cities. Urban entrepreneurs are challenging the logic of formal market structures, forcing us to reframe our thinking arou...
This article contributes to the business literature by examining the local institutional complexity involved in social entrepreneurship. We conduct a novel fuzzy-set analysis of 407 social entrepreneurs in the UK and identify five configurations of local institutional forces that collectively explain the confidence of social entrepreneurs in succes...
Inspired by Shrivastava & Kennelly (2013), we aim to extend theory on place-based entrepreneurship by highlighting the uniqueness of cities and the interplay between purpose-driven entrepreneurs and the urban places where they operate. This paper sets out to conceptualize a middle-range theoretical framework and establish the boundary conditions fo...
Calls for a transformation towards more sustainable consumption and production (SCP) have been intensifying. As urban populations swell across the planet, cities are faced with incresing pressure on infrastructure, economic and ecological systems. Yet, with their high population densities and ubiquity of information and communication technologies,...
In this paper, we address a thorny challenge: how can entrepreneurship scholarship enhance its impact without compromising the pursuit of conceptual rigor and theoretical novelty? We propose a prospective inquiry framework for entrepreneurship. It aims to align the scholarly pursuit of theoretical novelty with the entrepreneurs’ focus on the future...
As social entrepreneurship gains maturity, research has begun to explore the less alluring aspects of the field, including the heroic stance of social entrepreneurs, the assumed moral superiority of their intentions, and the misleading emphasis on solutionism. In this paper, we explore a central component of this criticism, which is the constructio...
This paper develops and applies a new evaluative approach to local entrepreneurial ecosystems, as configural narratives. We examine how configurations of local entrepreneurial ecosystem attributes, as evaluated by local experts, support or hinder the emergence of new and innovative firms. Drawing on sociology of place, we present a novel configurat...
In this paper, we put forward a new translational research framework for entrepreneurship, which leverages translational research from biomedical science and design science to lay the ground for a new research ecosystem of entrepreneurship. Instead of describing, explaining and predicting, our framework places emphasis on framing, experimenting and...
Purpose
US tax-exempt nonprofits are chronically underdeveloped when it comes to reporting, communicating and comparing the value they create. This paper aims to explore an approach to address these reporting and disclosure issues, for the purpose of sustainability and impact.
Design/methodology/approach
First, the authors ask and then answer: is...
In this paper, we address recent calls to increase the societal relevance of entrepreneurship research. We explore how entrepreneurship researchers and practitioners work together in the formulation of a research problem for impact. Leveraging process-tracing, we analyzed six entrepreneurship research projects, from early conceptualization to publi...
Purpose. Social entrepreneurs engage in action because they want to solve social problems. Consequently, it is expected to see more social entrepreneurship in contexts with the most severe social problems. This paper argues that this is an oversimplification of the problem- action nexus in social entrepreneurship and that action does not necessaril...
Regenerative organisations are interconnected with nature. Working together, organisations and nature create value in nature and help restore life in vulnerable ecosystems. By doing so, they contribute to the resilience and well-being of the communities supported by these ecosystems. These new ways of organising and creating value are what the elev...
To advance positive change within social impact ecosystems, policy makers offer tax incentives in return for social value. Some social enterprises are exempt from paying taxes, with an expectation that they will create positive change in society. Yet, studies have highlighted that there are a growing number of value-detracting issues with tax exemp...
This special issue presents six articles and two invited editorials that explore the antecedents, mechanisms, and consequences of regenerative organizing. Together, they draw on a range of disciplines from both organizational and environmental sciences to discover, theorize, and illustrate life-giving intersections between humans and natural ecosys...
Ecocentric management has grown in interest in business sustainability research, driven by recent debates on sustainability-as-flourishing and novel nature-based business approaches. While relevant and promising, examination and explanations remain anchored in conventional dualistic thinking and piecemeal logics. In this paper we seek to understand...
This paper explores the formalization of social impact measurement (SIM) in contexts where there are little or no expectations for it. Drawing on a combination of institutional and organizational-level theories, we assess the complex relationship between nine potential antecedents of SIM and its formalization, across 152 social entrepreneurs in Chi...
This paper explores the decision-making process social entrepreneurs go through when faced with a failing venture, in comparison to commercial entrepreneurs. Findings point towards the role of situated cognition. Using a 'think-aloud', scenario-based experiment and two assessments of cognitive effort, our research reveals a unique “person-in-situat...
At-risk social groups face long-standing challenges and entrepreneurship playing an emancipatory role can do something about it. This brief outlines these challenges and recommends ways forward.
In this editorial, we take stock of the Journal of Business Venturing Insights (JBVI) as it turns five years old. We reflect on the unique niche that JBVI fills in the realm of journals focused on research in entrepreneurship and highlight the papers that have gained the most traction within this short period. We reflect on the role that JBVI can p...
Nonprofits receive tax exemptions in return for social value creation and delivery. While the outcomes of these tax exemptions are often positive, there are value detracting situations in which the cost of granting the tax exemption is likely to exceed its benefits. To date, explanations for these value detracting situations remain scattered and di...
Chile is experiencing its worst economic and social crisis in decades, which is adversely impacting entrepreneurs and SMEs. Chile’s Economic Development Agency is seeking to support recovery efforts by reorienting its entrepreneurship programs and ecosystem support capacity. What makes the reorientation especially challenging is the need to ensure...
In this book review essay, we reflect on some critical issues for advancing location-sensitive research and theorizing of social entrepreneurship. Our review essay is inspired by the book 'Social entrepreneurship and innovation in rural Europe' by Ralph Richter, Matthias Fink, Richard Lang and Daniela Maresch, Routledge, New York, 2019. 226 + iv pp...
In this paper we uncover and systematize practical challenges and research priorities at the intersection of entrepreneuring, rehabilitation and at-risk social groups. Our work draws on practical challenges identified by service providers supporting vulnerable individuals in the process of rehabilitation. They reveal long-standing issues in the fac...
This report is about at-risk social groups, entrepreneurship and emancipation. It introduces and discusses long-standing challenges facing those organisations supporting the rehabilitation of at-risk social groups and explores the emancipatory role entrepreneurship may play in the process. While this emancipatory understanding of entrepreneurship i...
Mindfulness, meaning a receptive attention to and awareness of present events and experience, is reported to have a wide range of benefits, but it has been suggested that it could prove costly in terms of task performance. This article analyzes how dispositional mindfulness relates to taking entrepreneurial action. Based on two waves of survey data...
Prosocial organizations are emerging to tackle the effects of a New Normal. As they navigate its fragile and liquid institutional membranes, they prioritize cooperative forms of governance. These forms allow for collaboration and democratic decision-making necessary for the development of innovative solutions in this new context. At the same time,...
A social impact bond (SIB) is a new type of outcome-based social investment mechanism for enterprises operating in the social economy. They have grown across the developed world, yet its complexity may prevent from fulfilling their promises. This is particularly the case when SIB-pertinent regulatory frameworks, actors and social problems are ill-d...
In this paper, we revisit the entrepreneurship and poverty relationship under a eudaimonic perspective that brings together conversion factors, and future prosperity expectations. Based on an fsQCA of changes in life circumstances of 166 farm households in rural Kenya, we explore how different combinations of conversion factors enable distinct form...
In this paper, we examine how entrepreneurs living in communities under continuous threat prepare themselves to continue with their enterprising activities or engage in new ones after the expected crisis occurs. Most of the crisis literature on disasters and entrepreneurship focuses on aftermath responses, but the antecedents of such entrepreneuria...
Agglomeration-oriented theories have grown significantly in the past decade in the explanation and promotion of entrepreneurship. Theoretical frameworks and normative models such as entrepreneurial ecosystems are insufficient to observe, explain, and inform policies at the communal level in rural contexts. In this paper, we propose a socio-spatial...
In social entrepreneurship, social and economic missions co-exist in a tensioned balance. At times, business survival requires reprioritizing objectives, leading social entrepreneurs to drift away from social values in pursuit of commercial gains. This requires (re)balancing acts aimed at mitigating the effects of drift. Although critical for busin...
In the collective imagination, the practices and outcomes of social entrepreneurship seem to hold hope for a better future. So far, these practices have been largely assumed as idealized types with the ‘social’ in social entrepreneurship under explored. Such assumed neutrality, we argue, is hampering the development of a more robust theoretical cor...
The sharing economy has emerged in recent years as a disruptive approach to traditional business
models. While relevant and conceptually appealing, there is a lack of clarity about what
distinguishes the sharing economy from other platform enterprises. In this paper, we seek to
solve this problem. Drawing on a multi-year research program and a d...
In this article, we seek to open a debate within entrepreneurship scholarship around a prevailing reductionist view when it comes to non-western or alternative contexts. We argue it is incapable of capturing behavioral differences across contexts without making ethnocentric, narrow and simplified theoretical assumptions about ‘the rest’. Drawing on...
We extend theories of eco-centric venturing by introducing the concept of regenerative enterprises, which we define as ecologically-embedded businesses that restore and regenerate degraded natural ecosystems and build resilience in and improve the wellbeing of the communities relying on such ecosystems. Using a place-embedded methodology approach t...
Social impact measurement is frequently viewed as an intractable problem, as it is hard to conceptualize and operationalize an agreed upon measure for social objects such as human life, dignity, and nourishment. Yet, actors within the social industry depend on impact measurement to know whether their efforts are contributing, or not, to the resolut...
Purpose: Under what conditions do entrepreneurs make the sustainable decisions they need to develop socially and environmentally responsible new businesses? Explanations of sustainable decision-making have involved various cognitive features, however is not yet clear how they play a role in empirical terms and, moreover, how they combine to induce...
This paper examines the relationship between purpose and purposeful organizing and how such relationship influences the entrepreneurial journey as sustainable ventures move from idea to markets. We leverage an iterative multi-stage process-tracing design to understand the mechanisms whereby 14 different B Corp certified organizations embed purpose...
More than 40 percent of US consumers participate in the 300 billion (USD) conscious consumer market (CCM). In the past decade, the growth of the CCM has not gone unnoticed by startups and established multinational corporations. Yet what differentiates success and failure of such forays is not fully understood. By using multi-case study design we ex...
The recognition of entrepreneurship as a solution to, rather than a cause of, environmental degradation and social inequality moved the field to identify a new type of entrepreneurial activity, namely sustainable entrepreneurship. Scholarly interest has spiked in recent years, however, aside from its aspirational appeal, there remains a lack of und...
Sustainable venturing, the process of starting a new sustainable enterprise, has been studied extensively through the triple bottom line lens. The narratives employed by sustainable entrepreneurs, however, have proven to be more complex and diverse. In this paper, we set out to inductively explore the narratives underlying sustainable venturing. We...
Entrepreneurial ecosystems consist of social, economic and geographical spaces where entrepreneurs, hard and soft support infrastructures work together to create value through the development of new businesses. While the literature has grown significantly in the past decade, current theoretical frameworks and normative models are insufficient to ob...
Sharing economy businesses have emerged in recent years as a disruptive approach to the traditional way of planning, modeling and doing business. The phenomenon has gained significant traction within a wide range of domains including entrepreneurship, innovation, technology and management more broadly. Despite this surge and interest, there is a la...
This paper investigates the interrelated nature of instrumental freedoms and how they combine to engender financial inclusion amongst low income entrepreneurs. Drawing from Sen’s capabilities approach, we emphasize a need for understanding the freedoms associated with institutional arrangements and the complex causal processes that lead to financia...
The research into the Structure and Dynamics of Social Entrepreneurship in Chile has made an in-depth exploration of the key processes and mechanisms through which social enterprises and socially-oriented start-ups create inclusion and social innovation, as well as the contexts in which social enterprises thrive. The study has been motivated by the...
Latin America has produced a fertile crop of B Corp enterprises. To explore the challenges and opportunities facing B Corps, NBS gathered a group of 22 B Corps from Chile, Argentina and Colombia to form the first Latin American B Corp council. This report is the first outcome of the council’s work. It is a first step towards understanding, systemat...
Inclusive innovation, as the outcome of social enterprising, is currently considered a key mechanism towards alleviating social problems and increasing the wellbeing of the disenfranchised. It assumes that the concurrent pursuit of profit and social welfare while creating markets for the poor constitutes an efficient and inclusive way to enhance th...
This paper revisits the sustainable entrepreneurship journey by introducing a ‘place-based’ sustainable venture path model. We suggest that distinguishing between emotional (‘caring about the place’) and instrumental (‘using the place’) place attachment of sustainable entrepreneurs deepens our understanding of how place-based challenges of sustaina...
How entrepreneurs develop opportunities for sustainable development represents an important question. Current conceptions based on prior knowledge tend to overlook the nature and magnitude of the sustainability problem that the entrepreneur is trying to solve. Using an experimental design, we demonstrate that the moral intensity (MI) of the sustain...
Entrepreneurial failure and exit are critical components of the venturing process of social entrepreneurs. Failing and abandoning the pursuit of opportunities that seek to create social good has consequences for a wide array of stakeholders, whose well-being depends on the value that the social entrepreneur provides. Given the nature of social entr...
Background
In facing the challenges of reducing detrimental environmental and societal impacts created by unsustainable business practices, the development of innovations and entrepreneurship for sustainability has gained special attention. They are recognized as the engine in the transformation of current business processes and key factors in cre...
In facing the challenges of reducing detrimental environmental and societal impacts created by current unsustainable business practices, sustainable entrepreneurship has gained special attention because it might bring about necessary transformations to current products, processes and behavioral patterns. Despite its relevance and conceptual appeal,...
Sustainability entrepreneurs are seen as key actors in facing contemporary structural problems and supporting the creation of a more sustainable society. How these entrepreneurs recognize, develop and exploit venture opportunities represents an important research question. While researchers have addressed this issue by applying models of opportunit...
This paper deals with the impact of local institutional conditions on the formation of opportunity feasibility beliefs in social entrepreneurship. Embedded in the recent literature on entrepreneurial cognitions, institutions and social entrepreneurship, this study provides a systematic analysis of 776 social entrepreneurs in the UK to identify comb...
This paper deals with the impact of local institutional conditions on the formation of opportunity feasibility beliefs in social entrepreneurship. Embedded in the recent literature on entrepreneurial cognitions, institutions and social entrepreneurship, this study provides a systematic analysis of 776 social entrepreneurs in the UK to identify comb...
Descriptions of sustainability entrepreneurs have involved various characteristics such as motivation, knowledge, orientation, cognition, and ways of organizing their ventures, yet none of these are by themselves distinguishing features of such entrepreneurs. A key research task in driving forward research in this area is the development of operati...
Sustainability entrepreneurs are seen as key actors in facing contemporary structural problems and supporting the creation of a more sustainable society. They resolve the dualistic divide between business ventures and altruistic endeavors in favor of a new logic based on the creation of value for the economy, society and the environment while contr...
Despite the recent surge of research interest on sustainability entrepreneurship, there remains a lack of understanding of the nature of this phenomenon. Therefore, there is a need to define boundaries, connect theoretical fields and provide deeper explanations of sustainability entrepreneurship beyond current approaches to corporate sustainability...
This paper examines the formation, structuring and internal dynamics of networks in an open innovation environment. Based on a case study conducted at the Creapolis Innovation Centre in Spain, it highlights the significance of several paradoxes which emerge from the interaction between organizations that share an open environment. These paradoxes h...
In dealing with current structural problems derived from unsustainable behaviours, a growing stream of transition research has been elaborated theory and conceptual models for understanding and managing the co-development of technology and society. Niche-based models, such as the multi-level perspective of socio-technical transitions, emphasise the...
The present study explores the formation, structuring and dynamics of inter-organizational networks in open innovation environments. Based on a case study conducted at the Creapolis innovation center, it stresses the significance of a number of paradoxes that emerge when the conceptual combination of networking, diversity, openness and collaboratio...
La literatura actual en sistemas de innovación da cuenta de una evolución natural desde modelos lineales a sistemas cada vez más integrados y complejos, caracterizados por exhibir múltiples interacciones entre actores y tecnologías, una creciente integración de procesos de innovación y una masa crítica superior que asegure la intensidad de flujo de...
Sustainability entrepreneurs are seen as key actors in facing contemporary structural problems and creating sustainable growth and wealth. They bring into being a new approach to business opportunities that resolves the dualistic divide between business ventures and altruistic endeavours, in favour of a new logic based on the creation of economic v...
This paper explores the institutionalization process of sustainable ventures. Based on an in-depth case study of The People's Supermarket in London, it seeks to understand the way in which a number of sustainable ventures have created paths to success, opened up spaces and achieved a high degree of acceptance facing market structures. This study es...
Projects
Projects (7)
The Entrepreneurship Research Group at Durham University Business School invites applications from prospective Ph.D. candidates with outstanding academic achievement and research potential for a number of Ph.D. research streams in the 2022/23 academic year. Based on a new international research programme, the Entrepreneurship Research Group at Durham has organised three streams tackling critical aspects of value in entrepreneurship, led by experts in the field. The selected students will benefit from joining a team of academics that has ongoing projects and connections in their topic area. This allows for the development of a rich professional network and access to fieldwork. The research output will therefore be of academic importance and societal relevance.
Project 1: Entrepreneurship and disadvantaged groups
Project 2: The bright and dark sides of value creation in social entrepreneurship
Project 3: The myth of the lone entrepreneur: Ecosystems and networks for new ventures
Please see attached for further details; including on how to apply and forthcoming deadlines.
ER3 consists of scholarly contributions that are deployed quickly to inform those facing crises or pressing issues that affect, can be affected by or otherwise relate to entrepreneurial phenomena.
https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-business-venturing-insights
Special Issue, Journal of Business Venturing Insights