Update

I’m  pleased to say that I have had some good people applying for this opportunity – sorry to say the deadline is now passed, and I’m working on the selection.  Of course, I’m always interested in new colleagues who want to work with me in this space so feel free to get in touch if you want to discuss anything further.  Thanks to all those who applied and colleagues who circulated the link.

Work with me at the University of Southampton’s School of Management

Project Title: Digital disruption and value creation

The research focuses on how small businesses in the knowledge-intensive services sector can realise value from mobile communications.  It embraces innovation theory and business strategy and will enhance competitiveness in UK plc.

Supervisor: Dr Lorraine Warren

Start Date: October 2010

Details of the Project:

The rapid development of digital technologies now presents a nexus of possibilities: widespread access to broadband/mobile technologies; smartphones enabling new forms of communication, handheld internet access and bespoke applications development; software platforms that enable a high degree of networked connectivity and communication  with the potential to amplify to (potentially) a global audience; readily available real-time geographical data; increasing availability of government datasets to the public.  This nexus produces a new locus of innovation, a shift from the corporation to the individual, recognised in new so-called paradigms for innovation, ‘open innovation’ (Chesbrough) and ‘democratic innovation’ (von Hippel) across the distributed innovation networks foreseen by Rothwell.  The barriers to digital innovation by non-computer scientists have been significantly lowered as the plethora of new businesses in the fields of social media, or smartphone applications demonstrate.  It should now easier than it has ever been to not only access and use new technologies, but to extend them, customise them, develop new combinations, and to access and develop new sectors and markets.  Thus the potential for not only incremental innovation but transformative, disruptive innovation is also possible.

However the roadmap for inductive thinking that will create value in novel and unforeseen ways in new contexts and settings is not clear.  Classical technology transfer models are too linear to translate into this milieu and are also too focussed on economic value creation at the expense of the other forms of value – social, cultural, creative, artistic and technological – that are so significant in the 21st century.

At the heart of this project is a continuation, development and extension of ongoing research on the use of complexity theory to provide an understanding of value creation in disruptive contexts because of its potential to: conceptualise across multiple, interlinked levels of analysis (ie non linear); relate initial conditions to indeterminate outcomes.  To explore the above, the project will take as its starting point the use of the iphone/smartphone as a tool for small businesses in the knowledge-intensive services sector, now that people are using mobile applications  for a wide range of tasks, from purchases, service access communication and information retrieval, bypassing traditional web access.

The Student

The project would suit a School of Management student with an MSc in a relevant qualitative discipline, or a mature student with industry experience.  In terms of future employability, the student would graduate with detailed knowledge and practical understandings that would support entry into the industry, or the development of their own business, trading consultancy skills either to companies or government agencies.

To apply for one of the above scholarships, please apply for a place on our PhD programme by following these instructions at: http://www.management.soton.ac.uk/StudyOpportunities/PhD Please email Phdteam@soton.ac.uk once you have applied stating your application number and which scholarship you are interested in.

All completed applications, which include all supporting documents and details of any funding already awarded, received by 31st July 2010 will be considered for the scholarships.  Students who already have significant sponsorship will not be awarded scholarships under this scheme.

I really enjoyed presenting at Ignite Liverpool on Thursday night – to me, this was a new format, presenting 20 slides in 5 minutes with an automatic slide change every 15 seconds.  It’s best described by WimpyKing.  I took the bullet and went first – hopefully getting over some of my passion about working with creative artists in the digital economy.  My presentation is below – I just used a few words and clipart to get the message over  quickly – or try to!

Thanks to Frances Bell for organising this event yesterday for ISOS, Salford University’s Information Systems, Organisations and Society Research Centre in the very well appointed Think Lab.  I really enjoyed the discussion afterwards, thanks to the group for some food for thought.  Presentation below:

A slightly belated post, but just before Easter I participated in the Higher Education and the Creative Economy Conference held at Southampton on 23-24 March.  I’m pleased to see that we are getting more recognition at Southampton for our vibrant institutions such as the Nuffield Theatre, the John Hansard Art Gallery and the Turner Sims Concert Hall: A fantastic set of resources all within 200 yards of each other.  My research concerns the creation of  value through emerging technologies and the creative industries have a powerful role to play in that.  The presentation is below and as usual I’m happy to take any of these ideas further, or pass on the associated publications.

Pleased to say that I’ll be working with some colleagues at Southampton on a set of four forums supported through Roberts funding over the next year, on the theme of Energising Technology Entrepreneurship.  Really, this is about pipeline development – getting some of our STEM PhDs to consider commercialising the outcomes of their research, perhaps using the excellent SetSquared incubator here at Southampton.  The forums will be based around guest speakers who have been there and done it – people who can motivate and inspire through example.  Look forward to announcing more details later.

Just a very quick post to point to two great pieces  here and here from Cristina Costa at Salford – really looking forward to seeing you and Frances Bell in April, another great connect through Twitter! Interesting folks to follow: @cristinacost and @francesbell -> recommended!

Just a quick post to say how much I enjoyed my visit to the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim this week.  Thanks to Ole Jonny Klakegg and Hans Petter Krane for making my visit so pleasant and so useful. We’re all looking forward to building an ongoing collaboration to enrich both teaching and research in many different ways in future.  As well as a number of business meetings, I was pleased to give  a short workshop on the theme of how to use social media to build academic identity online.  About 12 people attended and I’m hoping to see at least some of them online soon .

Trondheim is certainly a beautiful place, and I’m looking forward to going back, especially to a couple of very good eating places, the Fischmarkt [where they sell fish and will cook you some fresh   ], and the historic Skydsstation.

Just a quick post to note the outcomes of  a study carried out by Cambridge’s Centre for Business Research calling for changes in Government policy towards technology commercialisation/high-tech start-ups.  It points to the significance of lead customers in development and argues there has been too much emphasis on  the  university research -driven VC models.  This resonates with some outcomes from a study that I have recently carried out [soon to be published] that shows many successful firms doing quite well on a mix of consultancy and client based work, without going down the equity funding route.  The shift towards open innovation has perhaps opened up new pathways for the micro-level interactions and network building that are so significant in developing new products and services.  I look forward to some interesting studies in this area.

Boomers are tech-savvy, avid Internet users and multitask online while watching TV, says a recent report from eMarketer, Boomer Demographics and Media Usage. In the article, the author of the report Lisa E. Phillips points out that in their youth Boomers  “…eagerly adopted new technologies such as Walkmans, VCRs, PCs, DVRs and the Internet” .  In many cases this is true, and in earlier posts I have questioned the ‘Digital Native’ tag attached so frequently to Generation Y.  I’d go further than that too:  there are some very savvy Boomers out there, I speak from experience here, who came up the hard way through technology.  Many of them learned the basics of computing on command-line driven systems of various kinds, including DOS, and had to write short macros to get  office-style  applications to do anything remotely interesting.  Indeed for some of us it was dumb terminals on a mainframe.  We then got used to Windows/GUI WYSIWYG working, and started to work with ‘multimedia’, graphics, videos and sound, when applications were thin on the ground and processor power and RAM memory were low, and CD-ROM was the storage du jour.  To make things work, you had to know a fair bit about the underlying system, for workarounds and dodges.  And so it went on, as peer-to-peer networking and eventually the Internet became the norm.  Adopters expanded the capabilities of these technologies, through knowing quite  a bit about what went on underneath the interface – you just had to, to make early stuff work just that little bit harder.  So, yes, my settee looks a bit like mission control, as I mix TV, PC and smartphone, apps, location, cloud – looking forward to the next stage!

Haawwooo <sound of dog/wolf howling in true Blues tradition>

Woke up this morning
On the world wide web
Tweeted my identities
To make one a celeb…   [blues courtesy Ted Fuller, unpublished email]

I thought I’d start this blogpost off with a musical note, although my colleague Ted hasn’t recorded this classic blues piece [yet].  Although it does sum up the debate pretty nicely

In my last post, I talked about the relationship between privacy, identity and status, following on from some great connections with Kieron O’Hara and Tim Greenhalgh.  My main point of career interest thus far has been entrepreneurial identity.  Like many authors, I have recognised the importance of entrepreneurial identity, that is, the need to construct, or perform a role that conforms with society’s expectations of what ‘being an entrepreneur’ is all about.  One strand of the literature acknowledges entrepreneurs as skilled cultural operators manipulating perceptions of the entrepreneurial self to achieve desired outcomes for their new ventures (Lounsbury and Glynn, 2001; Down and Reveley, 2004; Down, 2006; Reveley, Down and Taylor, 2004; Downing, 2005; Warren and Anderson, 200; Down and Warren, 2008; Warren, 2004).

Through these studies, I have come to realise that identity is a much-debated concept in various fields, including sociology, psychology and social psychology.  In all the detail there seems to be  a consensus that identity is not located in the personality of the individual, but instead is constituted through interaction between the individual, society and culture.  Giddens’  (1991) ‘project of the self’ is significant here, as is Goffman (1959), who describes how individuals ‘work’ their roles in relation to social expectations.  More recently, in the 80s/90s, authors such as Turkle (1995), Haraway (1991) and Castells (1997) took the debate into the digital age.  As Steve Wheeler summarises very effectively in an engaging set of blogposts, computers have now become pervasive and ubiquitous, identification through digital mediation has become the new cultural capital (Bordieu & Passeron, 1990).

Of course, the internet ensures that identity production and manipulation has never been easier.  As Reid (2000: 35) points out:

“The freedom to obscure or re-create aspects of the self on-line allows the
exploration and expression of multiple aspects of human existence. The
research on virtual communities is filled with tales of masks for age and
race, gender and class; masks for almost every aspect of identity”.

There is a plethora of discussion on multiple identities from many disciplinary perspectives, not just the technical, and how identity manipulation may be carried out for many motives, good and bad.  Taking twitter as an example, there are many instances of multiple account holding, often for quite valid reasons – the separation of business and personal identities makes obvious sense from the point of both business and personal reputation and privacy. This is an area that would benefit from further study, not just entrepreneurs, but as a broader issue for society, given the links between privacy and status I discussed in my last post.

References

Bordieu, P. and Passeron, J-C. (1990) Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture. London: Sage Publications

Castell, M. (1997), Power Of Identity [Vol. 2: Economy, Society, And Culture], Wiley, New York.

Down, S. and Reveley, J. (2004) ‘Generational encounters and the social formation of entrepreneurial identity – “young guns” and “old farts” ’, Organization 11(2): 233-250.

Down, S. (2006) Narratives of Enterprise: Crafting Entrepreneurial Self-identity in a Small Firm, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

Down, S. and Warren, L. (2008) Constructing narratives on enterprise: clichés and entrepreneurial self-identity, International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Research, 14/1, pp 4-23

Downing, S. (2005) ‘The Social Construction of Entrepreneurship: Narrative and Dramatic Processes in the Coproduction of Organizations and Identities’, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice March, 29(2): 185 – 204.

Giddens, A. (1991) Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age, Cambridge: Polity Press.

Goffman, E. (1959). The presentation of self in everyday life, Harmondsworth: Pelican Books.

Haraway, D J. Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. Routledge. New York

Lounsbury, M, Glynn M.A. (2001) ‘Cultural entrepreneurship: stories, legitimacy, and the acquisition of resources’, Strategic Management Journal 22: 545-564

Reid, E. (1998). “The Self and the Internet: Variations on the Illusion of One Self.”
In Gackenbach, J. (ed). Psychology and the Internet: Intrapersonal, interpersonal,
and transpersonal implications. San Diego: Academic Press.

Reveley, J., Down, S. and Taylor, S. (2004) ‘Beyond the boundaries: An ethnographic analysis of spatially diffuse control in a small firm’, International Small Business Journal 22(4): 349-367.

Turkle, S. (1995) Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet
New York: Simon and Schuster.

Warren, L. (2004) ‘Negotiating entrepreneurial identity: communities of practice and changing discourses’, International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, 5(2): 25–37.

Warren, L. and Anderson, A. R. (2009) Playing the fool? An aesthetic performance of an entrepreneurial identity, Chapter 9 in The politics and aesthetics of entrepreneurship, New Movements IV, eds Hjorth, D and Steyaert, C., 148-161, Edward Elgar