Effectuation Dubrovnik Style

Some people are the experts simply because they are the best. Their expertise, enthusiasm and fluency makes their skills shine out. So a conference led by the effectuation trio of Profs. Sarasvathy, Read and Wiltbank was a unique experience. You can tell as I am still bouncing 2 weeks later…

I am a biased viewpoint in this circumstance, as I have avidly read all of their published work. So maybe I am just an uber-fan? Hopefully I will not move from uber-fan into stalker. Congratulations to Professor Slavica Singer and all her team at Osijek University for an excellent event.

Is enterprise infectious?

Can entrepreneurial companies make their employees become more entrepreneurial? In essence is enterprise a bug that rubs off on you?

If you work for someone who is an entrepreneur maybe you start to get the excitement and buzz of the creation of new things. Maybe at some point you even think that it isn’t so hard or risky and you could create your own slice of fun!?

I think enterprise is a skill that you can learn and I guess inevitably being in an enterprising culture may rub off on you. Thanks to Alexa for enthusing me for this post.

Half a Proposal or a Proposal Halved?

It is done and I was particularly nervous and worried. After being knocked off my bike and taking forever to recover, my luck has been rough! However it is done and I haven’t been completely knocked over again.

It was much shorter than I thought and I was surprised at how anxious I was to pass. There was strong debate and I tried hard to defend my proposal, although I knew there were holes and weaknesses… So then followed the stressful part, being sent out and waiting while the committee discussed their decision. I had a nervous coffee.

Their recommendation was that it needed to be half the size, it was too much. So either I could focus on the early-stage or focus on the entrepreneurs with a background of mental health. I was shocked and upset at the time but now I think it will make it better. It won’t be halving the workload but will provide clearer focus and direction. I will go with the early-stage entrepreneurs as that is less controversial and I can then do the mental health aspect as follow on post-doctoral research.

So a big sigh and a big cheer at the same time but it is done!!!

Research Proposal Looms

Another deadline which I am not moving towards. I think it is fear this time that is stopping me and that I don’t know what to do. That is not quite true as I do think it is clearer now what I need to do but I seem blocked in terms of being able to pull my mess of thoughts together.

There are so many concepts that I want to pull in and it is such a difficult process trying to create a coherent picture. I am also pulled apart by wanting to do different things, so will I use this methodology or that pragmatist epistemology or research effectuation and affect or longtitudinal triangulation… all words that I didn’t even understand six months ago.

Currently I would recommend anyone wanting to do doctoral research to carefully rethink their ideas. Although I am absolutely loving all the reading research that I am doing. Ofcourse I will meet this deadline, will it be the quality I want, NO…

Nothing like a deadline…

As the time tracks down I am not sure whether to curse or love the deadline. Firstly I have been grinding away at this for almost two months and in particularthe past two weeks have been very intense. It feels I am almost at a point of not being able to get there. And more importantly I do have two small children who are getting more desperate each time they see me to get that final hug, climb on the head, just in case they don’t see me again for another long time.

With the deadline feeling more dead than a lifeline it does feel in some ways as it gets closer that at least it will be done. May not be what I want it to be but I will be able to do something else. Actually I won’t as the presentations for the literature review and pilot project will be the next week but that will not be as intense. So the need to complete is now becoming a good thing because it will be a stage for review, I am changing my mind for to now looking forward to the finish in 4 more days.

What to do in those 4 days, well already there are too many holes and next stages that will need to be justified. At least the data collection is finished, the analysis is started and as stated the project will just have to be finished… in four more days!

Pilot started – will it fly?

I have started my pilot project although I am not sure about the plane or where it is flying to? And I have just spent half an hour lost in versions of this post having lost the one I wrote. I don’t think these are good signs. I have started the interviews, technically speaking they were trying to be think-aloud protocols on decision making, so the next stage will be to get some insights from analysis as well as try to collect more interviews.

All of this is due in less than a month and so as a pilot it is flying without a map, definitely not enough fuel and most likely to crash and burn! Not a great start but it has started.

What am I doing?

Here I am on this crazy DBA journey and I  don’t know what I am doing with either this blog post or the dba. So it is a bit like the entrepreneurs that I am trying to research and the journey that they take.

The image is from my favourite photographer and one of the entrepreneurs that I have helped. I am hoping that my research may help give me insight  into the ‘real’ entrepreneur, whatever that may mean?