Guest Editors

Simone Guercini, University of Florence, Florence, Italy

Bernard Cova, Kedge Business School, Marseille, France

Paper submission deadline: December 15, 2016.

 

Entrepreneurship is rapidly changing. There is an urgent need to rethink its conceptual framework along new lines. Unconventional entrepreneurship – that is, entrepreneurship not bound by, or in accordance with, the conventional endeavors of planning, launching and building a venture – is at the core of several theories which are distancing themselves from the mythical figure of the Schumpeterian entrepreneur. Of major relevance for these new theoretical frameworks are the contexts in which individuals acquire the resources and the courage to undertake entrepreneurial ventures.

Nowadays, during their everyday activities people learn and develop skills that can become resources for innovation. Passions developed in a wide range of leisure or hobby activities may lead to new forms of entrepreneurship. Indeed, an entrepreneur’s commitment may be fueled by motives that go beyond the rational search for profit; it could be based on passions unrelated to professional experience, but linked instead to personal aptitudes and leisure activities. Such passions stem from another realm of their existence: one of consumption rather than production. Indeed, most passions drive consumption, they make individuals consume related artifacts and share their passion with fellow users/consumers. At the same time, most passions also foster the development of competencies, skills and knowledge, which in turn foster innovation (Martin and Schouten, 2014).

Consumption and entrepreneurship represent phenomena that have long been recognized as fundamental to both the economy and society (Ritzer and Jurgenson, 2010). The idea of this special role is based on the conviction that the interface between these two phenomena is of growing interest for both research and the experience of consumers, business owners and managers. Consumer experience and entrepreneurship are commingled in the history of many entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurial consumers have commercialized their own leisure innovations in industries ranging from sporting equipment to youth products, from stereo components to new media. Recent studies have proposed new business models related to users’ lifestyles and experiences (Shah and Tripsas 2007). The connection between the two phenomena, however, also appears in a new light (Goulding and Saren, 2007). Consumers have gained expertise, and their experience is fueled by passions that bind people in the community (Haefliger, Jäger & Von Krogh, 2010; Hietanen and Rokka, 2015). Passion (Cardon et al., 2012), as well as skills and social relationships (Guercini and Ranfagni, 2016), are important factors in generating entrepreneurship.

Advanced economies are experiencing the need for new types of entrepreneurship that go beyond those traditionally fueled by work experience. Nowadays, consumption may represent a reservoir of skills, passion and community for innovative entrepreneurship able to achieve positive results for the economy, for people and for society.

The JBR special issue, “Sources of unconventional entrepreneurship: Passion and consumption” aims to examine theory, approaches, methods, and case studies that contribute to shedding light on the role and relevance of unconventional entrepreneurship, including the role of consumption-based passion in its emergence. Particular attention is to be paid to approaches dealing with case studies of the creation of small businesses by consumers and/or users, the intersection between production and consumption, and the role of passion in entrepreneurship.

The phenomena to be investigated lie on the interface between entrepreneurship and consumption, and hence contributions from both fields are welcomed, as are studies of social and business networks related to unconventional entrepreneurship. The potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Consumer tribes and entrepreneurship;
• Embedded entrepreneurship in social relations and communities;
• Entrepreneurial passions;
• Entrepreneurial success built into subcultures or fringe activities;
• Hobbies and leisure time as a source of entrepreneurship;
• Industry entry by consumer entrepreneurs;
• Networks in unconventional entrepreneurship;
• etc.

Manuscript submission for the review process will be done in the Elsevier Editorial system at the following website:http://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-business-research/. The Link to the Special issue article will be opened from September 2016)

Any inquiries should be sent by email to both JBR Guest Co-Editors: Simone Guercini, Professor of Marketing, University of Florence, Italy (simone.guercini@unifi.it); Bernard Cova, Professor of Marketing, Kedge Business School, Marseille, France (bernard.cova@kedgebs.com).

Please check the JBR website for guidelines on style in preparing your paper for submission: http://www.elsevier.com/journals/journal-of-business-research/0148-2963/guide-for-authors.

 

References

Cardon, M. S., Wincent, J., Singh, J., & Drnovsek, M. (2009). The nature and experience of entrepreneurial passion. Academy of Management Review, 34(3), 511-532.

Goulding, C. & Saren, M. (2007). ‘Gothic’ entrepreneurs: A study of the subcultural commodification process. In Cova B., Kozinets, R.V. & Shankar, A. (Eds.), Consumer Tribes, Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford, p. 227-242.

Guercini, S., & Ranfagni, S. (2016). Conviviality behavior in entrepreneurial communities and business networks. Journal of Business Research, 69(2), 770-776.

Haefliger, S., Jäger, P., & Von Krogh, G. (2010). Under the radar: Industry entry by user entrepreneurs. Research Policy, 39(9), 1198-1213.

Hietanen, J., & Rokka, J. (2015). Market practices in countercultural market emergence. European Journal of Marketing, 49(9/10), 1563-1588.

Martin, D. M., & Schouten, J. W. (2014). Consumption-driven market emergence. Journal of Consumer Research, 40(5), 855-870.

Ritzer, G., & Jurgenson, N. (2010). Production, Consumption, Prosumption: The nature of capitalism in the age of the digital ‘prosumer’. Journal of Consumer Culture, 10(1), 13-36.

Shah, S. K., & Tripsas, M. (2007). The accidental entrepreneur: The emergent and collective process of user entrepreneurship. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 1(1‐2), 123-140.