Year: 2006
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: This paper illustrates an evolutionary process that is consistent with the primary domains ofevolutionary theorising, namely ecology and biology. In doing so, this paper presents analternative explanation of how certain type of regional start-ups have managed to survivewhere others have failed. This account challenges the validity of many accepted ways ofaccounting for internal and external factors assumed to be responsible for success or failure.This paper goes beyond the current practice of accepting an interrelated process betweenenvironmental selection and firm adaptation. This is achieved through the importation of keyecological concepts such as niche construction, selective environmental neighbourhoods and kinselection. As a result, this paper challenges key terms used in organizational studies literature,specifically, selection and environment. The paper's empirical context is a case study of theHobart Pizza Industry from 1969 till the present. Both quantitative and qualitative data isdiscussed from the perspective of preliminary findings. The quantitative data is analysed usingSPSS Survival Analysis and the qualitative data is used to identify motives related to strategicchange through the life history of each firm. This paper highlights the frequent unimportance ofperceived fitness in regional pizza shops. Evidence is provided to demonstrate a process ofsurvival dependent upon location, resource partitioning and kin selection. A general propositionthat franchised pizza firms have altered the survivability of regional pizza shops through thetransferring of demand for pizza. This proposition is discussed through the presentation of fourtestable postulates. Through a constant focus on Geoffrey Hodgson's Principle of Consistency,this paper unravels many arguments that continue to prevent the development of anevolutionary approach to entrepreneurship. It returns a focus to the minimal requirements ofconducting research employing an evolutionary approach. In summary, this paper introduces afocus many old concepts that should not be ignored when conducting research employing anevolutionary approach.
Author: CD Jones
Institution: University of Tasmania
Language: English
Subfield: Management of Technology and Innovation
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W785581393