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.

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

“I can create ‘behaviour’” says Golan Levin, one of the exhibitors at Decode: Digital Design Sensations, an exhibition running at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London until April 11. The exhibition,  a joint collaboration between the V&A and onedotzero showcases the latest developments in digital and interactive design, from small screen based graphics to large-scale installations. Levin’s comment was made in an interview (transcript available in Decode’s accompanying programme) in response to the question, “What do digital technologies allow you to do or investigate that other design tools do not?”. For me, it really gets to the heart of the three themes of the exhibition:

Code as a raw material

interactivity

the network (as in digital traces)

As I walked around the exhibition, it was clear that people were fascinated by the exhibits, excited, laughing, talking to people they didn’t know already…..maybe not new behaviours in one sense, but fairly untypical of formal art exhibitions. And certainly, they were forging new connections, maybe developing new links outside their existing sphere of influence.  These kind of interactions and connections across contexts can be be the spark that ignites innovation – maybe a small, incremental innovation, or maybe something big enough to change a market, society or the world – who knows? That’s the beauty of complexity theory, which underpins much of my research, potentially large effects from small changes in initial conditions.  That is why it is so vital to fund the leading edge artists and groups who are able to to challenge us in ways that make us think and indeed behave differently – especially in the Digital Economy, as I know from my own work with Proboscis*.  Of course it is difficult to quantify that kind of contribution in straitened times, but we can and must do so.

In one of those quirks of timing, I came home to the fervour for the newly-launched  iPad on twitter.  My colleague Tim Greenhalgh suggests that the iPad will form a nexus between the liberal arts and the network and will change everything.  Whether that device is ‘the gamechanger’ or not, it’s pretty clear that the power to create content, move it around, enjoy it, in all kinds of ways is now out of the lab and into the hands of the public.  Let’s make sure our creative artists have the space they need to make that happen, as Levin suggests, through creating new behaviours.  And as  a researcher in innovation, I want to focus on value creation as new products, service and indeed behaviours emerge.

Footnote

If that last paragraph was about networking and interactivity, where does code as a raw material come in? Perhaps best illustrated by example.  In all the joie de vivre, beauty and colour of yesterday’s exhibition, I was perhaps most taken by a quieter work by Troika, Digital Zoetrope. I do see a lot of beautiful images as I love space stuff, Hubble, NASA and so on.  I love the different renderings.  I also look at fractals a lot, and i have seen interactive installations before.  A fabulous excess!  Troika is diferent, a monochromatic barrel with vertical, horizontal and diagonal typefaces rotating quickly, which merge into letters and words at speed.  It reminded me of Wender’s black and white masterpiece Wings of Desire, where Angels hear sense from the whispered thoughts of thousands in Berlin.  It made me think of two new friends I have made on twitter in the North of England.  It made me think we have joked of having a dvd film festival weekend of German, or film noir, together at some point.  It made me think I should do it soon.  Now, I may be giving an invited talk for one of them, a lecturer in the Performing Arts in early February.  Who knows what may come of that?

*makers of mischief, and pioneers of pie in the sky