The emergent process of entrepreneurial innovation: evidence from Fabrication Spaces
type: CreativeWork
description: This thesis contributes to sharpening process theories of organisational emergence. It studies the co-evolution of new product development (NPD) and new venture creation (NVC) activities for nascent entrepreneurs in the process of commercialising their idea. The empirical context selected for studying this process is that of entrepreneurs in Fabrication Spaces, open design and fabrication workshops. This thesis unpacks and analyses the process of entrepreneurial innovation in its defining components, providing empirical evidence for its challenges and associated key resources from the perspective of entrepreneurs. By focusing on the very initial stages of such process, I identify some of the key antecedents of entrepreneurial innovation behaviour and how they are harvested through Fabrication Spaces as example of entrepreneurial support systems. The outcome of the study is the introduction of a revised view on the contemporary process, resources and context of entrepreneurial innovation, a phenomenon that is gaining particular relevance in digital, crowd-sourced, and collaborative economies. First the exploratory research draws upon a review of the literature on the venture creation process for nascent entrepreneurs. This review highlights one major knowledge gap, concerning how the development of technical products and production capabilities in a new venture intertwine with the development and launch of the business. To address this gap, an initial theoretical model is outlined and used to structure the analysis of data captured from 19 in-depth and cross-sectional case studies. Then, the social and technical resources employed by entrepreneurs to navigate the entrepreneurial innovation journey are mapped onto the corresponding stages and events of the process described by the theoretical model. This mapping uncovers new contextual influences for the process of entrepreneurial innovation, in particular for what concerns the role of acquired psychological and techn…
abstract: This thesis contributes to sharpening process theories of organisational emergence. It studies the co-evolution of new product development (NPD) and new venture creation (NVC) activities for nascent entrepreneurs in the process of commercialising their idea. The empirical context selected for studying this process is that of entrepreneurs in Fabrication Spaces, open design and fabrication workshops. This thesis unpacks and analyses the process of entrepreneurial innovation in its defining components, providing empirical evidence for its challenges and associated key resources from the perspective of entrepreneurs. By focusing on the very initial stages of such process, I identify some of the key antecedents of entrepreneurial innovation behaviour and how they are harvested through Fabrication Spaces as example of entrepreneurial support systems. The outcome of the study is the introduction of a revised view on the contemporary process, resources and context of entrepreneurial innovation, a phenomenon that is gaining particular relevance in digital, crowd-sourced, and collaborative economies. First the exploratory research draws upon a review of the literature on the venture creation process for nascent entrepreneurs. This review highlights one major knowledge gap, concerning how the development of technical products and production capabilities in a new venture intertwine with the development and launch of the business. To address this gap, an initial theoretical model is outlined and used to structure the analysis of data captured from 19 in-depth and cross-sectional case studies. Then, the social and technical resources employed by entrepreneurs to navigate the entrepreneurial innovation journey are mapped onto the corresponding stages and events of the process described by the theoretical model. This mapping uncovers new contextual influences for the process of entrepreneurial innovation, in particular for what concerns the role of acquired psychological and techn…
author: Dammicco, Valeria
language: eng
keywords: entrepreneurial innovation, process research, new product development, innovation communities, digital fabrication, venture emergence
license: https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/
date published: 2022-12-01
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:24:04Z
provider: Cambridge University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Cambridge

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.17863/CAM.87836