When time is of the essence and teams face unexpected contextual changes, they must adapt quickly, sometimes even in real time, that is, they may have to improvise. This paper adopts an inductive approach to explore how teams decide to engage in improvised adaptation, and what happens during those processes for improvisation to be successful. The study analyzes improvisation from the perspective of paradox theory and identifies six paradoxical tensions driven by these contexts: deployment, development, temporal, procedural, structural, and behavioral tensions. We propose a dynamic equilibrium model of team improvised adaptation that leads to team plasticity. By properly managing the paradoxical tensions emerging from the convergence of design and execution, teams become more plastic and able to cope with sudden change. These findings contribute to adaptation and improvisation literatures by delving into the adaptation process under the temporal and material confluence of design and execution.
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The concept of an ‘entrepreneurial ecosystem’ has become a major means for both theorizing and making policy decisions concerning entrepreneurship, innovation and economic development. The notion of an entrepreneurial ecosystem captures the way in which entrepreneurship is increasingly performed and undertaken via the innate interdependencies existing between the elements and components of what are essentially biotic communities (consisting of complex interactions between human agents and an array of tangible and intangible components). This book takes a multi-lensed view and perspective on the emergence of entrepreneurship within ecosystems in cities and regions, the manner in which these ecosystems evolve and operate, as well as their future development. This introductory chapter provides some initial theoretical background relating the nature of ecosystems in the context of entrepreneurship and urban and regional development before providing a summary of the book’s three parts: (1) The Emergence of Entrepreneurial Ecosystems; (2) The Evolution of Entrepreneurial Ecosystems; and (3) The Future of Entrepreneurial Ecosystems.
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- Entrepreneurship