Public defence in Industrial Engineering and Management, M.Sc. Aracely Soto-Simeone

Title of the thesis: Entrepreneurial Agency in Context: Enacting Places, Relationships, and Time

Thesis defender: Aracely Soto-Simeone
Opponent: Professor Thomas B. Lawrence, University of Oxford, UK
Custos: Professor Mikko Jääskeläinen, Aalto University School of Science

Entrepreneurial agency in context: Enacting places, relationships, and time

How is entrepreneurial agency and its outcomes affected by, as well as shaped and enabled in relation to the context in which entrepreneurs operate? 

Entrepreneurial agents are hands-on dreamers who intervene in the present to create a more promising tomorrow. However, being able to do so requires not only the possession of certain skills, but also the necessary “equipment” to deal with the uncertainty inherent to future-oriented endeavors, and the ability to sense, act, and mobilize under dynamic conditions. Such cognitive, emotional, and behavioral qualities, which are contextually shaped and deployed, enable entrepreneurs to come up with new ideas, solve problems, and take action to pursue opportunities; or alternatively stated, to “do” entrepreneurial work. 

Interested in these foundations, this doctoral thesis explores the interactions and practices that influence, shape, and sustain entrepreneurial agents and their situated undertakings in two different contexts: established organizations and competitive markets. As such, it looks at employees engaged in corporate entrepreneurial roles, on the one hand, and independent entrepreneurs, on the other hand, to unveil how entrepreneurial agency and its outcomes are affected by, as well as shaped and enabled in relation to the context in which these individuals operate. By drawing on empirically- and conceptually-driven ways of theorizing materialized in four independent studies, the research conducted reveals several microprocesses that substantiate entrepreneurship as a method of thought and action.

Keywords: Entrepreneurship, corporate entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial agency, context, social-symbolic work, microfoundations, emotions, legitimacy, temporality, sense of place, wellbeing

Thesis available for public display 10 days prior to the defence at Aaltodoc.