Coping with uncertainty: entrepreneurial sensemaking in regenerative medicine venturing

Entrepreneurs face multiple sources and types of uncertainty during venturing activity. Converting novel or speculative opportunities into viable commercial businesses requires entrepreneurs to address or even leverage uncertainty. This process is especially relevant in nascent, knowledge-intensive fields, where success likely hinges on acquisition and deployment of unique, specialized knowledge resources. Venture development will be partly determined by the sensemaking strategies entrepreneurs employ to cope with irreducible uncertainty, especially as they seek critical collaborations. The regenerative medicine (RM) sector represents a unique context for studying entrepreneurial sensemaking under high levels of uncertainty. We consider how uncertainty in RM venturing affects entrepreneurial behavior. Informed by long-form narrative interviews, we propose a sensemaking model linking uncertainty, university culture, coping and narratives of venture potential in the RM field. This helps explain how participants in the RM sector cope with uncertainty and explore knowledge partnerships. Our findings advance theories of entrepreneurial sensemaking and the impact on nascent entrepreneurial ecosystems.