TBRP: Theory Building Research Programme

Fintech is an “untilled field” in which the relation between Fintechs and incumbents is yet to be understood. This paper aims to explore this relationship and advance its theoretical and practical understanding. It further contributes toward Fintech paradigm and research domain emergence that both to date remain yet elusive. This paper adopted a multiple-case study strategy for the purpose of theory building. Seven players from the Fintech ecosystem in Quebec (Canada) were selected, representing financial institutions, Fintech start-ups and Quebec’s financial cluster. Primary data was collected via in-depth interviews with ten respondents at the level of vice presidents, Managers, directors, chief executive officers and founders, and unobtrusive data – in the form of running records, mass-media news reports, presentations and proceedings from Fintech events. Data analysis was informed by grounded theory methods and techniques. Grounded in data, this paper puts forward a typology of “comfort zoning” and its four types: nimbling, imperiling, cocooning and discomforting. Following the tenets of the grounded theory, four criteria are used to evaluate the emergent theory: fit, relevance, workability and modifiability. It is expected the interpretation and adoption of comfort zoning typology will be challenged, modified and enhanced by Fintech researchers and practitioners. The comfort zoning typology would aid practitioners in their efforts to define and refine the domain of Fintech, problematize it and eventually enhance the relationship between Fintechs. This paper fulfills an identified need to explore the relationship between Fintechs and incumbents and advance the theoretical and practical understanding of this relationship.

Action research has a very limited track record in marketing. We take an applied and practical approach and begin with a review of action research as a method, then turn to a more focused review of action research in marketing contexts, discussing the plausible constraints and advantages. Based on these reviews, we offer a conceptual framework and several application areas for marketing action research. We summarize case study examples from three market locations that have used action research as a method of inquiry to illustrate and encourage researchers and practitioners to further integrate action research in their research endeavors. We conclude with discussions on future research directions.

Authentic leadership is a relatively new phenomenon (see 4.3) and its definition, theoretical, conceptual and empirical evidence are still being contested. Especially in today’s liquid world that is punctuated by numerous authentic leadership crises in all areas of our daily lives such as politics, social, business, science, technology, ethnics, environment and sustainability, health and education. One way to mitigate such crises in today’s liquid times, inter alia, is to acknowledge there is an international need for a quantum increase in authentic leaders. Our Handbook contributes to this agenda.

Understanding how and why bubbles occur as well as whether these could be anticipated, managed, or even prevented is equally important as to know how to recover from them. To address these questions, a model of bubble emergence is put forward. The model builds on two fundamental commonalities that are identified to exist between the Internet and housing market bubbles: uncertainty and sentiments. The iteration between uncertainty and sentiments leads to the emergence of the third commonality: residue. The residue is the difference between the actors' overall sentiment about exaggerated future prospects of a new venture (newness) and intended outcomes of that new venture (newness); the higher the residue, the higher the likelihood of the bubble emergence; as residue increases, the likelihood of bubble burst increases. One question that arises is whether one can manage the hype, hence the residue. In this, it is maintained all boils down to the role pricing plays vis-à-vis the emergence of a new venture (newness) and its perceived value. Being in the midst of the global economic crisis provides us with a unique opportunity to refine the proposed model, especially by understanding its temporal and contextual boundaries.

This paper employs analytic autoethnography within a previous life in an organization and within social science to explore the emergence of new forms and ways of organizing in a new venture that was launched as a branch in an emerging market by an international non-for-profit organization. It responds to extant scarcity of knowledge about internal organization of entrepreneurial ventures as most of research about internal organization of firms comes from the research on large established organizations. In the early stage of new venture emergence, entrepreneurs shall be aware of the interplay between: understanding the new venture socio-politically and cognitively through unsophisticated uncertainty; timing of acquiring socio-political and cognitive legitimacy through legitimation temporaling; shared and non-shared understanding of the value (problem) of the new venture through disguised and true value theorizing; dependent and independent organization through diversifying funding sources; and headquarters and branch visions and missions through dominant logic crisis.

This study aims to develop understanding of non-traditional knowledge transfer (KT) activities inside universities. Grounded theory research is undertaken in four universities in the United Kingdom and one in Australia. Coding of the data reveals 26 constructs, which are presented as a conceptual model of knowledge transfer. A number of high leverage enhancements to KT systems are hypothesised; that extensive KT is impossible without comprehensive integration into existing systems, that exponentially increasing KT system complexity requires innovative infrastructure, and finally, that entrepreneurialism may only be fostered through the opportunity for individuals to act entrepreneurially.

The main purpose of the paper is to conceptualize the interrelationships between FinTech innovations and the banking sector. Since the presence of online banking has been rapidly evolving in the past years, this paper will provide a specific focus on that promising area of technological developments. To address the purpose of this research, multiple case study methodology is adopted. The companies and respondents are purposefully selected from the Canadian and Danish banking sector. Secondary and primary data in form of semi-structured interviews was collected and analyzed. The findings are discussed following a conceptual framework that consists of four dimensions: (1) Banking sector transformation including public policies and partnerships; (2) Fintech strategic and operational organizational planning; (3) Fintech innovative services in banking and Fintech adoption; and (4) market implementation. Implications for practice and academia are discussed.

This paper aims to contribute towards the advancement of an efficient architecture of a single market for knowledge through the development of an integrative model of knowledge transfer. Within this aim, several points of departure can be singled out. One, the article builds on the call of the European Commission to improve the European market for KT between research institutions and industry. Two, various barriers exist that hinder efficient KT in Europe, especially in transition economies that recently joined the EU where the issues of restructuring higher education, building trust between business and academia, and implementing the respective legislature are enduring. The research objectives were to explore (i) the process of knowledge transfer in universities, including the nature of tensions, obstacles and incentives, (ii) the relationships between key stakeholders in the KT market and (iii) the meaning/reality that is construed as a result of these relationships. To address the above research objectives, grounded theory research was undertaken in four universities in the UK and one in Australia. Coding of the data revealed thirteen constructs, which became the building blocks of the emergent integrative model of knowledge transfer. In an attempt to bring it to a higher level of generalizability, the integrative model of KT is further conceptualized from a ‘sociology of markets’ perspective resulting in an emergent architecture of a single market for knowledge. Future research is called for to test and validate the emergent theories.

While the problem of legitimacy and legitimation has gained an increasing amount of attention in organizational studies and among business practitioners in general, our understanding of legitimation in the context of early and rapid internationalization remains unsystematic, fragmented and lacking coherence. This hinders cumulative and progressive advancement of our knowledge on the topic. In response to this, the current literature review organizes and synthesizes extant research on legitimacy and legitimation in international entrepreneurship to build a more comprehensive understanding of legitimation strategies and underlying activities that enable legitimation of early and rapidly internationalizing ventures. We achieve this by examining the whole body of international entrepreneurship journal articles, consisting of 978 papers that published over a 30-year period since the inception of international entrepreneurship as a distinct research domain in 1989. Based on the principles of ontological grouping, we categorize and discuss the legitimation activities that emerged during the analysis of the extant literature into four distinct groups. We then discuss the emergent findings in light of current debates in international entrepreneurship and its parent fields, and open up avenues for further research on the topic.

With growth in social media, mobile communications, and location-based services, online transactional spaces are evolving in complex, multidimensional ways. We extend existing ways of doing online ethnography into new directions – to help organizations facing such environments in employing ethnographic methods in adaptive ways. Online transaction and consumption spaces are evolving to become multifaceted, complex, and multimedia spaces. Approaches for online social ethnography need to evolve also. Starting with an evolutionary typology of online consumption and transaction spaces, the paper reviews the existing literatures on online ethnography and identifies the challenges and opportunities to evolve ethnographic approaches. The paper argues that online ethnography should take advantage of the opportunities offered by Web 2.0 and the imminent Web 3.0, and address the challenges it faces. Specifically, the paper proposes new directions for future evolution of online ethnographic methods. The key contributions of this paper are: (1) An evolutional typology of online consumption spaces, (2) A review of existing online ethnographic methods from the perspective of fast-transforming online environments, (3) Proposing of new directions for online ethnographic methods.

Through business model theoretical lenses, we explore the impact of de-internationalization on firms and their industries and challenges in re-configuring their business models and re-thinking their value propositions in response to de-internationalization. This is a conceptual paper. We put forward a multilevel framework to advance our understanding of this intersection.

As technological innovations are evolving and globalizing, traditional financial organizations are facing continuously changing patterns, though incentives for financial technology – Fintech – engagement has been rather uncommon in previous decades. This phenomenon conjectures radical transformations within the global financial industry, where Fintech is expected to gain a central position within a decade. Within this scope, we investigate the impact of Fintech on financial ecosystems in the context of the financial ecosystem in Quebec (Canada), employing a multiple-case study research. Primary data was collected at the level of top management and founders via in-depth interviews. Data analysis was informed by grounded theory methods and techniques. Constant iteration between open and theoretical coding led to the discovery of a core variable, comfort zoning. The method of constructing typologies by reduction was employed, generating four types of comfort zoning: nimbling; imperilling; cocooning; and discomforting. Findings on how the diffusion of Fintech innovations affects the financial ecosystem are embedded within the players’ interactions, as openness of Fintechs and financial institutions towards each other holds a central position, creating a mutually supportive, bulletproof ecosystem. Implications for practice and policy as well as suggestions for future international business research are discussed.

Through business model theoretical lenses, we explore challenges universities face in their pursuit of advanced internationalization into foreign markets. This is a conceptual paper. Based on theoretical and empirical insights we conjecture that advanced internationalization of universities is unethical, calling for a revision of business model theory to incorporate ethics.

Purpose – Drawing inspiration from the 1910 book Finanzkapital by Rudolf Hilferding, this paper seeks to explore the nature of financial capital in the early twenty‐first century from a political‐economic and culture theory perspective. It aims to offer suggestions for transcending the crises‐prone contemporary economic systems. Design/methodology/approach – The paper reconceptualises the notions of Finanzkapital in the contemporary context, drawing selective evidence from current and twentieth century economic and business history. Findings – The nature of contemporaneous Finanzkapital is elaborated by presenting seven “theses” that probe the nature of Finanzkapital prior to, during, and after the Great Recession of 2007‐9. Originality/value – Through succinct articulation of the major characteristics of contemporary Finanzkapital, the paper suggests some ways to resist and transcend politico‐economic and business systems based on massive but quicksand‐like foundations of financial capital.

Turcan addresses one of the enduring questions in sociology of knowledge: how is it possible that subjective meanings become objective facticities? Turcan adopts this question to understand the entrepreneurship phenomenon, more specifically, how new business or venture ideas and new sectors or industries (as subjective meanings) are legitimated and institutionalized (become socially established as reality). The author builds on Berger and Luckmann’s work and suggests an alternative order objectivation of meaning to understand the entrepreneurship phenomenon. Turcan conjectures considering legitimation as a first-order objectivation of meaning, whereas institutionalization constitutes a second-order objectivation of meaning when researching entrepreneurship. Turcan introduces the legitimation typology to frame the discussion around the process of creation, legitimation, and institutionalization of newness. The author concludes the chapter by proposing a grand theory of legitimation.

Turcan and Fraser introduce the reader to the handbook. It is the first attempt to discuss and advance entrepreneurship field from multi-disciplinary perspectives. The authors invited original contributions from authors, who are experts in their own fields, to provide state-of-the-art insights from their own discipline and explore how these insights might help generate new areas for research, new theories and concepts, and new questions for policy debates—all aimed to advance the entrepreneurship field in the years to come. Turcan and Fraser consider this collection of original chapters in the handbook as a catalyst for an inter-, cross-, and multi-disciplinary dialogue between myriad of perspectives from humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, medical sciences, and technology and production sciences, and entrepreneurship.

This paper explores how new product concepts emerge and how development teams adapt, modify these concepts that emerge in the context of uncertainty. Specifically, it studies how cross-functional product development teams elaborate and define new product concepts under uncertainty that are based on fundamentally new technologies within a globally operating In-Vitro Diagnostics corporation. An inductive single-case study design with two embedded cases within an In-Vitro Diagnostics Corporation is employed to study this phenomenon. A wide range of primary and secondary data was collected. Data collection and analysis within and across the embedded cases were informed by grounded theory methods and techniques. Data analysis led to the emergence of scoping as a core variable to explain the emergence of new product concepts under uncertainty. It builds on contextual and temporaling sub-core variables, each having two dimensions, respectively: resource efficacy and context interpreting efficacy, and exploring and normalizing.

The paper focuses on legitimation and legitimation strategies applied by companies. Following the process of systematic review, we analyse empirical studies exploring legitimation and legitimation strategies from different theoretical perspectives. Using the key findings by reconnoitering and comparing the theoretical background, approaches, methodologies and findings of these empirical studies, we outline potential directions for research in the legitimation strategies of firms engaged in international business operations.

This paper explores external and internal critical incidents that shape the emergence of new forms and ways of organizing in a new venture that was launched in an emerging market by an international new non-for-profit organization. The paper responds to extant criticism that most of the knowledge about the internal organization of firms comes from the research on large established organizations and that the research aimed to understand internal organization of entrepreneurial ventures is scarce. Theoretically the paper is grounded within legitimation and dynamic capability theories of the firm. Although the research on legitimation of INVs is emerging, it is yet to form a central line of enquiry in the context of such new, international entrepreneurial ventures. This paper aims to contribute to this development. Autoethnography is employed as an approach to address the above questions and concerns. The author of this paper was hired as CEO in September 2005 by INV-NGO to start-up, grow and lead its branch in an emerging market. The events and incidents occurred between 2005 and 2009. The approach of narrating organization is employed to present, analyze and interpret the data. A number of theoretical insights, conjectures emerged as a result of the analysis of new forms and ways of organizing at personal, venture, and industry levels through the lenses of legitimation and dynamic capability theories of the firm.

In this paper I discuss the phenomenon of legitimation introducing a number of factors that contribute to legitimation of artifacts and behavior. These include: uncertainty, latent and manifest functions and ignorance. The combination of these factors highlight the major concerns artifacts and/or behaviors have within their own structures suggesting four types of legitimation. Together with their internal and external dimensions, the proposed four types of legitimation contribute to the development of a grand theory of legitimation.

This paper introduces and discusses the concept of turning points from the ontological, epistemological, and methodological perspectives, applying it to the de-internationalization phenomenon to exemplify its deployment. As a concept that adds to the variance and complexity of the international business and management field, the turning point is seen as a valuable unit of analysis within the research field. It is expected that this paper will encourage a dynamic scholarly conversation about the concept of turning point and how it can aid international business researchers in the development of a generalizable international business and management theory.

Through business model theoretical lenses, we explore in this paper issues and challenges universities face in their pursuit of advanced internationalization entries into foreign markets. The context of this paper is defined by universities from developed countries entering developing or emerging countries via foreign direct investment entry modes, such as joint ventures, acquisitions, green field or brown field investments. This is a theoretical paper. We draw on a number of sources of data to conceptualise issues and challenges universities face in their pursuit of advanced internationalization entries into foreign markets. First, we build on university autonomy, international business and business model theories to conceptualise the phenomenon of interest. Second, we analyse publicly available data, anecdotal evidence where the phenomenon we study is explicitly observable. The above theoretical as well as empirical insights led us to conjecture that advanced internationalization of universities is unethical. We see our conjecture as a warning for those universities that wish to pursue advance internationalisation business model into developing countries. As current noise from the field suggests, neither our conjecture nor the above insights will however refrain universities from developed countries to continue ‘jumping and riding the bandwagon’ of advanced internationalization into the emerging, developing countries. In this case, our theoretical and empirical insights could offer number pointers to consider before deciding to pursue advanced internationalisation as well as to aid decision makers in designing a respective advanced internationalisation business model.

This is a Teaching Note (product number: 8B17M008) for the "Cembrit Holding A/S: At the Crossroads" case (product number - 9B17M008) published by Ivey Publishing.

The development of art marketing as a new field of management occurs in a context of great confusion as to what constitutes the very definition of art, one aspect of this confusion being nothing else but the confusion between art and marketing itself. This confusion leads to conflicts between those who consider that art should be defined by a clear aesthetic criterion and those who accept the absence of such a criterion as a legitimate consequence of the principle of freedom which applies both to the creation of the artist and to the taste of the public. This state of confusion does not seem to be experienced in the same way in France where it has tended to be considered as a symptom of crisis in the world of art and in the United States where it has raised as a dominant force in contemporary art. Hence the confusion of art and marketing varies as a function of time (as shown by the emergence of a new field of management) and of space (as shown by the comparison of the French and American cases). It will be proposed that it is possible to account for these historical fluctuation thanks to an institutional approach based on the notion of system of legitimacy. We shall propose the essentially dynamic institutional foundations of modernity leading to the proliferation of innovations which consequences are ever more difficult to anticipate as a reason why, in America, philosophers coming from the analytic tradition found it meaningful to address questions such as “What is art” (Arthur Danto) or “When is there art” (Nelson Goodman”) expressing the need to go beyond pragmatism as expressed by John Dewey’s Art as Experience to promote a positive attitude towards contemporary art, while, in France confusion between art and marketing has been commonly considered negatively as the sign of the triumph of the most radical form of rhetoric, i.e. sophism.

Since 1940, marketing theory has undergone two full transformational turns – managerial and broadening – but a third turn, radical-postmodern, is unfinished. Unready for radical-postmodern renewal, marketing theory revels in self-fuelling spirals of incrementalism. A postcolonial approach – with an ideological reversal that put consumers in the driving seat – may be the way to break the siege of incrementalism.

Drawing inspiration from the 1910 book Finanzkapital by Rudolf Hilferding, this paper explores the nature of financial capital in early 21 st century from a political-economic and culture theory perspective. It offers suggestions for transcending the crises-prone contemporary economic systems. The paper reconceptualises the notions of Finanzkapital in the contemporary context, drawing selective evidence from current and 20 th century economic and business history. The nature of contemporaneous Finanzkapital is elaborated by presenting seven 'theses' that probe the nature of Finanzkapital prior to, during, and after the Great Recession of 2007-9. Through succinct articulation of the major characteristics of contemporary Finanzkapital, the paper suggests some ways to resist and transcend politico-economic and business systems based on massive but quicksand-like foundations of financial capital.

Modern history has been punctuated by bubbles – instances where (for a while) hype outpaces reasonable expectations by wide, and rising, margins. In a broader sense, bubbles are not merely financial phenomena but are market-cultural phenomena, entailing interactions of marketing hype and buyer expectations. This paper is part of an ongoing research stream to develop an interdisciplinary meta-theory of bubbles, relevant to the contemporary era of globalization and rapid, technology-aided communication flows. To develop a more general and multidisciplinary conceptual framework for understanding bubbles, we have ongoing projects looking at bubbles of various types: technological, financial, and cultural. This paper focuses on a particular cultural field where relatively small bubbles may form. Movies represent a good arena to examine cultural bubbles on a scale that is not daunting, and where the hype-hope-hit dynamics can be observed more frequently than in most other settings. We approach this study from a grounded empirical as well as a theoretical angle.

Purpose: Bubbles - technology, stock market, housing, and more - have punctuated modern economic history with some regularity, and seem to be happening with greater frequency in recent periods. Part of the authors' larger work on a meta-theory of bubbles, this paper aims to compare and contrast bubbles in the fields of entertainment, technology, commodities, housing, and stock markets. It seeks to offer a typology of bubbles. Design/methodology/approach: Using the literature on bubbles and related socioeconomic phenomena, and experience-based insights, the paper compares and contrasts bubbles in different fields, to derive inductively a typology of bubbles. Findings: The paper finds six main types of bubbles, ranging from relatively harmless transient and playful bubbles for some movies at one end, to socially dangerous, contagious, irrational and punctured bubbles at the other end, for stock markets or real estate. Practical implications: Understanding the dimensions that lead to bubbles can provide policymakers with some early intervention tools - to prevent dangerous bubbles. Social implications: The insights into dimensions and processes of bubble formation presented provide society with a way to judge actors (businesses, public policymakers) and institutions in terms of their roles in creating or managing bubbles. Originality/value: The main contribution here is the development of two sets of dimensions - the immediate asset-linked dimensions and somewhat removed but even more powerful meta-dimensions - that contribute to the formation or collapse of bubbles.

In this chapter, we put forward our grand theory of bubbles that reflects pervasive irrationality, of individuals and markets and builds on three transcending constructs that explain the formation of bubbles regardless of the asset types. These are sentiment-guiding theory, sentiment, and newness of assets. One of our central insights is that during the stage of rapid bubble inflation, there is a tendency to discard sentiment-guiding theories rather than sentiments themselves. To help theorize the emergence of bubbles further, we turn to the concept of turning points, and also introduce a number of constructs such as ignorant belief toward a new asset, subjective probabilities, and illusionary certainty of negotiated mix. We argue in this chapter inter alia that ignorance and illusion of skill are phenomena present not only at the level of individuals, but also at the level of industries, and various private and public institutions for the society as a whole.

In this chapter, we pull together various building blocks of Chapters 2–5 and present an overall model of bubble formation, with special focus on the contagious, irrational, and punctured bubbles of the type that have taken massive economic and social tolls in the twentieth century and that continue to threaten the economic and social well-being of people the world over in the twenty-first century. To illustrate our model of bubble formation, for example how theories behind sentiments were changed in order to justify sticky sentiments, we draw on examples from the dotcom bubble in the United Kingdom and from Nordic Europe—Iceland. To provide a stronger visualization of the model of bubble emergence, we invoke the concept of value-pricing thermometer and introduce our adapted version of the bubble thermometer. To exemplify the bubble thermometer, we explore social processes that attempt to build up movie hype, and their aftermath, and relate such exploration to our emerging interdisciplinary theory of bubbles.

In this chapter we propose a simple yet robust typology of bubbles. Six bubble types are identified and profiled in terms of asset-linked dimensions, and the context-spanning meta-dimensions. These types are transient or playful bubble, inflating bubble, deflating bubble, contagious bubble, irrational bubble, and punctured bubble. While small, playful bubbles are not particularly harmful to overall society or economy where they occur, the large technology and financial bubbles have not only devastating economic impacts but also corrosive social impacts as people lose not only their savings or abodes but also faith in the institutions, private and public, that they have come to trust as protectors of their interests. To illustrate and discuss properties and indicators of these types of bubbles, we developed vignettes that present short overviews of movie, social media, gold, dotcom, and housing bubbles.

To date, the discourse about service dominant (S-D) logic has been largely theoretical, with the main focus on exploring the foundations for an integrating general theory of markets and marketing. Little attention has been given to the role of theorizing, and how empirical evidence can be used to inform the theoretical development. This paper explores the bridging role of middle range theory in this process. First S-D logic is examined as a foundation for general theory. This leads to a discussion about the use of middle range theory to link general theory and empirical findings. The following sections examine the role that contemporary marketing practices (CMP) research plays in providing a bridge between S-D logic and empirical evidence. The paper concludes by considering implications for further research.

In this inaugural lecture I discuss how we – as Business School, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities and University – can enhance our interdisciplinary research, teaching and knowledge transfer endeavour. This lecture builds on the current challenges in these three areas and inter alia discusses their impact on the AAU PBL model. As the title suggests the lecture has to major components: Sociology of Knowledge and Becoming Context-Free. What the title does not explicitly state, but what glues these two together – and what happens to be my passion – is the notion of ‘newness’. Through my lecture I will argue that ‘becoming context-free’ in pursuit of ‘newness’ is essential in our efforts to enhance our inter-disciplinary research and teaching, innovate our PBL model, excel in knowledge transfer – all aimed at enriching social impact of our academic endeavour. Clearly this is not the only way, but it will definitely contribute to our holistic - interdisciplinary research, teaching and knowledge transfer - academic efforts.

Turcan and Gulieva deepen our theoretical understanding of the process of university internationalisation by exploring the relationship between university internationalisation and university autonomy. They conjecture that the process of university internationalisation and its sustainability are determined by the structure and exercise of university autonomy settings at home and in the host countries, and that the process itself cannot be successfully achieved and maintained without changes in the autonomy settings. The key question the authors ask is to what degree universities, in embracing new, dissimilar, and sometimes conflicting dimensions of the financial, legal, organisational, staffing, and academic autonomy of the host country, are compromising key aspects of their own autonomy and core mission?

In this paper, we explore how, why and which structures are consequential to the organization of technology entrepreneurship. Technology entrepreneurship is a relatively unexplored field of research; yet body of research in this promising area of scholarly enquiry, both theoretically and empirically is emerging. Inspired by elements of the Grounded Theory research methods for data collection and data analysis we explore (i) the process of technology entrepreneurship at different levels: university, industry, and government, including the nature of tensions, obstacles and incentives, (ii) the relationships between key stakeholders from these three levels, and (iii) the meaning/reality that is construed by these stakeholders as a result of these relationships. The research was undertaken in four universities in the UK and one in Australia. Coding of the data revealed thirteen constructs, which are presented as an integrative model of technology entrepreneurship. From the emergent model of technology entrepreneurship we move to a higher level of theorizing and develop a framework of the organization of technology entrepreneurship.

In this paper we focus on de-internationalization of universities, aiming to advance our theoretical understanding of university international activities. Internationalization has become an indispensable part of universities’ mission statements and strategic plans. It is practiced in different forms and requires various approaches. Alongside student and staff mobility, universities get also actively involved in cross-border activities, such as licensing, joint ventures and green field investments. These cross-border activities are not without pitfalls however. A large number of universities withdraw from international markets and such cases raise concerns about sustainability of university internationalization. Despite this disconcerting evidence, the research in this area is lacking. To explore how and why university de-internationalize, we employed the concept of de-internationalization as a theoretical lens and reviewed and analyzed available unobtrusive data such as running records as well as episodic and private records. A number of de-internationalization factors emerged: low student enrolment, wrong assumptions, bandwagon effect, staff immobility, lack of adaptability, brand identity, and funding issues. We call for future research in this substantive area, conjecturing that international activity of university and its sustainability is dependent on university institutional autonomy settings at home and in host countries.

This ethnographic research explores the process of business model design in the context of an NGO internationalizing to an emerging market. It contributes to the business model literature by investigating how this NGO - targeting multiple key stakeholders - was experimenting (1) with value proposition; (2) creating the value/promise; and (3) delivering the value. Theoretically the paper is grounded in the dynamic capability view of the firm providing venues for future research and implications for policy and practice.

In general, it has been recognized in Japan that the university plays three distinct but interrelated roles: education and teaching, research and scholarship, and contribution to regional revitalization. While the first two roles have received considerable attention in Japan, relatively little attention has been given to the third role of the university: the contribution of the university to the revitalization of the region in which the university is located.