Uncertainity perception and entrepreneurial learning: exploring partnerships between startups and large firms

• Ano de defesa: 2023
• Autor(a) principal: Moraga, Francisca Nicole Urra
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: eng
• Instituição de defesa: Biblioteca Digitais de Teses e Dissertações da USP
• Palavras-chave em Português: Aprendizagem; Empreendedorismo; Entrepreneurial learning stream; Incertezas; Open innovation; Pesquisa qualitativa; Tomada de decisão empreendedora; Uncertainty perception in entrepreneurship
• Link de acesso: https://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/12/12139/tde-11042024-155905/

The theme of this research is the perception of uncertainties and learning of entrepreneurs in the partnership between startups and large companies. While entrepreneurs who decide to establish collaborations with large companies are attracted by the availability of resources, infrastructure, networks, knowledge and market access offered by large firms, while the latter seek to integrate new technologies and innovations that can improve their competitive advantage in the market. This journey for entrepreneurs, in many cases, is marked by experimentation and, consequently, learning. The entrepreneurial learning process is understood in the acquisition of information and skills (i.e. knowledge) through experience and experimentation mainly during the management of uncertainties. Uncertainty management is defined as the process by which entrepreneurs deal with perceived information gaps over time, having no control or predictability of probabilities or results when acting in certain situations. Although the literature on uncertainty and the management of uncertainty by entrepreneurs explicitly address experimentation, the two are not properly connected. In fact, experimentation receives much less attention than the phases of perception and analysis of uncertainties. This dissertation, therefore, seeks to understand how entrepreneurs manage uncertainty and learning in an integrated way during partnerships between startups and large firms. The main objective of this work is to explore the patterns by which entrepreneurs seamlessly deal with the tensions and consequences linked to expanding, contracting or maintaining the scope of experimentation in the face of perceived uncertainties in partnerships between startups and large companies. To approach this research problem, the qualitative methodology was chosen. Primary and secondary data are used with which the timeline artifact will be made to map decisions, actions and critical events. As a strategy in the analysis, the construction of the Gioia Method tree will be used.