Going Alone or Together? A Configurational Analysis of Solo Founding vs. Cofounding

Research and practice suggest that cofounded ventures outperform solo-founded ventures. Yet, little work has explored the conditions under which solo founding might be preferable to cofounding. Combining an inductive case-oriented analysis with a Qualitative Comparative Analysis of 70 new entrepreneurial ventures, we examine why and how solo founders can be as successful as their peers in cofounded ventures. We find that successful solo founders strategically use a set of cocreators rather than cofounders to overcome liabilities, retain control, and mobilize resources in unique and unexpected ways. A primary contribution of this paper is an emergent configurational theory of entrepreneurial organizing. Overall, we reveal the broader significance and theoretical importance of adopting a configurational lens for both practitioners and scholars of entrepreneurship.

Towards a neo-configurational theory of intrinsic motivation

This research seeks to improve our understanding of how intrinsic motivation is instantiated. Three motivation theories, flow theory, self-determination theory, and empowerment theory, have informed our understanding of the foundations of intrinsic motivation at work. Taken jointly, they suggest six causal factors for intrinsic motivation: (1) perceived competence, (2) perceived challenge, (3) perceived autonomy, (4) perceived impact, (5) perceived social relatedness, and (6) perceived meaningfulness. Integrating different theoretical perspectives, I employ a case-based configurational approach and conduct coincidence analyses on survey data from a German public utility to analyse the nuanced interplay of these six causal factors for intrinsic motivation. My data show that high perceived meaningfulness or high perceived autonomy is sufficient for high perceived intrinsic motivation and at least one of the two conditions must be present. Further, my findings reveal a common cause structure in which perceived impact is not a causal factor for intrinsic motivation but an additional outcome factor. Subsequent analyses shed light on possible roles of the remaining proposed causal factors by drawing a tentative causal chain structure. The results of this study enhance our understanding of the causal complexity underlying the formation of intrinsic motivation.

Explaining the servitization paradox: a configurational theory and a performance measurement framework

PurposePrevious research reports mixed results regarding the performance impact of servitization in manufacturing firms. To resolve this, the purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptually consistent and comprehensive measurement framework for both dimensions, servitization and its performance effect, and apply in a configurational analysis to reexamine previous evidence, arriving at a configurational theory of the relationship between servitization and firm performance.Design/methodology/approachCombining systematic literature review (SLR) and inductive reasoning, the existing indicators for servitization and performance are identified and clustered into groups that adequately represent both dimensions. The dataset is reanalyzed against the resulting framework to identify the configurational patterns and to formulate the theoretical propositions.FindingsFinancial and nonfinancial indicators of servitization and its performance impact are organized into a comprehensive measurement framework grounded on existing research. The subsequent meta-analysis shows that the positive or negative impacts of servitization on performance depend on how firms implement servitization strategies and which performance aspects are examined.Research limitations/implicationsThe results explain when servitization can be successful and confirm the existence of the so-called servitization paradox. The meta-analysis identified patterns that explain the previous mixed results, shaping a configurational theory of servitization. Thus, the measurement framework is conceptually robust and has sufficient detail to capture servitization and its performance outcome as it feasibly distinguished between different organizational configurations.Originality/valueThe framework provides a comprehensive portfolio of indicators for both managers and scholars to measure servitization intensity and performance. This supports managers of servitizing firms in leading this organizational transformation while avoiding its organizational and financial paradoxes.

Goal, source, and route preverbs in Latin: their interaction with spatial datives

Prefixed verbs in Latin may take an argument in the dative case, interpreted as the ground of the spatial relation codified by the preverb. This phenomenon is constrained by the semantics of that spatial relation: while preverbs encoding a location, a goal, or a source of motion generally accept the dative argument, preverbs encoding a route do not. I propose a syntactic analysis of this phenomenon, framed within the Spanning framework. I assume an analysis of the spatial dative as an applied argument interpreted as a possessor of the final location of motion. Developing a configurational theory of spatial relations, I show how only the syntax-semantics of the preverbs interpreted as encoding a location, be this final (a goal), initial (a source), or unrelated to motion (a static location), is compatible with the projection of an Appl(icative)P integrating the dative argument. By the same token, pure route preverbs, involving a path but not a location, are correctly predicted to disallow the projection of ApplP, and hence the spatial dative.

Learning from the Informality. Using GIS Tools to Analyze the Structure of Autopoietic Urban Systems in the “Smart Perspective”

This paper explores the link between the current vision of the “smart city” and the notion of urban autopoiesis understood as self-organized/managed urban systems. It seeks to highlight how the use of GIS analysis, applied to the study of informal settlements, can provide useful information to understand the smart city paradigm. The paper argues the key idea that a smart city should not be seen only as a high-tech urban environment because the transition to smartness will need major changes in its inner structure. Using a combination of quantitative and qualitative GIS analysis methods, this study examines the case of the BaSECo Compound, one of the densest informal settlements in Metro Manila (Philippines), with the aim of both generating a comprehensive morphological analysis of this dynamic urban area as well as contributing to the configurational theory of the smart city. The results suggest that the analysis of autopoietic urban systems could expand our understanding of how the structure of the city could evolve to accommodate the needs of its citizens and creating more resilient and inclusive communities.

Turkic default agreement

Baker & Vinokurova (2010) argue for a hybrid account of morphologically observable case, which involves both a configurational theory for accusative and dative, as in Marantz (1991), and case assignment by functional heads for nominative and genitive, as in Chomsky (2001). In the spirit of Levin & Preminger (2015), I argue that a configurational theory is enough to account for the assignment of genitive case. Based on the understudied phenomenon of default agreement with complex possessors in Turkic, I argue that a configurational theory is better equipped at handling the distribution of genitive case. I present a phase-based account of case blocking agreement in order to derive default agreement.

Business Model Innovation in Established SMEs: A Configurational Approach

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are at the heart of a nation’s wealth creation, employment generation and economic development. To help SMEs stay competitive in a fast-changing environment, researchers have recently emphasized the relevance of business model innovation (BMI). However, BMI and its performance are not linear but rather a complex phenomenon that depends on contingency factors. Based on configurational theory, this study extends the BMI research to SMEs, exploring the management approaches and BMI capabilities that foster BMI in established SMEs. To achieve this objective, this study of a purposive sample of 78 Spanish SMEs adopts the fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) method. Results suggest three substantive conclusions. First, long-term managerial orientation is a key factor for the development of BMI in SMEs. Second, five BMI capabilities (sensing customer needs, sensing technological options, conceptualizing and experimenting, collaborating and BMI strategy) support, in combination with the management approach, the development of BMI in established SMEs. Third, open innovation (open flows of knowledge regarding market needs and the potential of technologies, as well as collaboration with customers) are concrete preconditions of business model innovation. Therefore, managers in SMEs need both to actively consider their management approach towards BMI, and to develop some key dynamic capabilities in their organizations to implement BMI, an approach also valid for post-Covid-19 management.

Configurational Theory in Traditional Manufacturing Industries: A New Model of High-Performing Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

The goal of this study is to provide a model of high-performing small and medium-sized companies to address the new environmental challenges in traditional manufacturing industries. Adopting a configurational logic and following an inductive approach based on four high-performing firms, this paper provides new empirical evidence on how the steps followed by these firms are adjusted to the high-performance models prescribed by the literature. In doing so, it also offers a dynamic view of the interrelationships between the strategy and the new conditions of the environment. At a practitioner level, the paper illustrates which recipes are more appropriate to prescribe recommendations for a more robust model that reinforces competitiveness in these industries. This research suggests that competitive success in traditional manufacturing industries requires movement along five complementary and interlinked strategic-development axes: the use of cooperation agreements, the combination of local and international manufacturing, the greater control of the distribution channel, the sale of customized products, and an increasing concern for sustainability.

Qualitative Comparative Analysis in Business and Management Research

During the last decade, qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) has become an increasingly popular research approach in the management and business literature. As an approach, QCA consists of both a set of analytical techniques and a conceptual perspective, and the origins of QCA as an analytical technique lie outside the management and business literature. In the 1980s, Charles Ragin, a sociologist and political scientist, developed a systematic, comparative methodology as an alternative to qualitative, case-oriented approaches and to quantitative, variable-oriented approaches. Whereas the analytical technique of QCA was developed outside the management literature, the conceptual perspective underlying QCA has a long history in the management literature, in particular in the form of contingency and configurational theory that have played an important role in management theories since the late 1960s. Until the 2000s, management researchers only sporadically used QCA as an analytical technique. Between 2007 and 2008, a series of seminal articles in leading management journals laid the conceptual, methodological, and empirical foundations for QCA as a promising research approach in business and management. These articles led to a “first” wave of QCA research in management. During the first wave—occurring between approximately 2008 and 2014—researchers successfully published QCA-based studies in leading management journals and triggered important methodological debates, ultimately leading to a revival of the configurational perspective in the management literature. Following the first wave, a “second” wave—between 2014 and 2018—saw a rapid increase in QCA publications across several subfields in management research, the development of methodological applications of QCA, and an expansion of scholarly debates around the nature, opportunities, and future of QCA as a research approach. The second wave of QCA research in business and management concluded with researchers’ taking stock of the plethora of empirical studies using QCA for identifying best practice guidelines and advocating for the rise of a “neo-configurational” perspective, a perspective drawing on set-theoretic logic, causal complexity, and counterfactual analysis. Nowadays, QCA is an established approach in some research areas (e.g., organization theory, strategic management) and is diffusing into several adjacent areas (e.g., entrepreneurship, marketing, and accounting), a situation that promises new opportunities for advancing the analytical technique of QCA as well as configurational thinking and theorizing in the business and management literature. To advance the analytical foundations of QCA, researchers may, for example, advance robustness tests for QCA or focus on issues of endogeneity and omitted variables in QCA. To advance the conceptual foundations of QCA, researchers may, for example, clarify the links between configurational theory and related theoretical perspectives, such as systems theory or complexity theory, or develop theories on the temporal dynamics of configurations and configurational change. Ultimately, after a decade of growing use and interest in QCA and given the unique strengths of this approach for addressing questions relevant to management research, QCA will continue to influence research in business and management.