Technopreneurial Characteristics Rising from the Ashes of Creative Destruction

This paper uses the grounded theory building method to investigate the differences and similarities in the evolutionary paths of three entrepreneurial ventures. Theory-based reasoning was used to select cases representing different technopreneurial business models, namely product, expert service, and integrated product-service business models. Our cases emerged from a disrupted global technology corporation and they represent the economic activity emerging from classical creative destruction. We investigate the evolutionary paths of these ventures from their start-up by employing the resource-based view (RBV) approach to determine the critical change points and watershed events that guide the path of the cases. With these analyses, we are able to differentiate the performance differentials and evolutionary trajectories of the cases. The cases suggest that while the strength of the original path is strong it is possible to change the course despite path dependencies. We outline the mechanisms that facilitated these transitions (e.g., finding a suitable equity fund as a catalyst to make the change). Hence, we find that entrepreneurial ventures are not as path dependent as previous studies suggest; rather, there is managerial discretion to change the evolutionary trajectories. Our study suggests that the capabilities acquired over a long period of time in a global technology corporation contribute to the ability to change the path. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of the critical decision points during the evolutionary trajectories of ventures.