IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/entthe/v34y2010i2p317-350.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Terminal Assessment of Stages Theory: Introducing a Dynamic States Approach to Entrepreneurship

Author

Listed:
  • Jonathan Levie
  • Benyamin B. Lichtenstein

Abstract

Stages of growth models were the most frequent theoretical approach to understanding entrepreneurial business growth from 1962 to 2006; they built on the growth imperative and developmental models of that time. An analysis of the universe of such models (n = 104) published in the management literature showed no consensus on basic constructs of the approach, and no empirical confirmation of stages theory. However, by changing two propositions of stages theory, a new dynamic states approach was derived. The dynamic states approach has far greater explanatory power than its precursor, and is compatible with leading edge research in entrepreneurship.

Suggested Citation

  • Jonathan Levie & Benyamin B. Lichtenstein, 2010. "A Terminal Assessment of Stages Theory: Introducing a Dynamic States Approach to Entrepreneurship," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 34(2), pages 317-350, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:entthe:v:34:y:2010:i:2:p:317-350
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-6520.2010.00377.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2010.00377.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2010.00377.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Raghu Garud & Arun Kumaraswamy & V. Sambamurthy, 2006. "Emergent by Design: Performance and Transformation at Infosys Technologies," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 17(2), pages 277-286, April.
    2. Philip Anderson & Alan Meyer & Kathleen Eisenhardt & Kathleen Carley & Andrew Pettigrew, 1999. "Introduction to the Special Issue: Applications of Complexity Theory to Organization Science," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 10(3), pages 233-236, June.
    3. Jan W. Rivkin & Nicolaj Siggelkow, 2003. "Balancing Search and Stability: Interdependencies Among Elements of Organizational Design," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 49(3), pages 290-311, March.
    4. Elizabeth Garnsey & Erik Stam & Paul Heffernan, 2006. "New Firm Growth: Exploring Processes and Paths," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(1), pages 1-20.
    5. Lichtenstein, Benyamin B. & Dooley, Kevin J. & Lumpkin, G.T., 2006. "Measuring emergence in the dynamics of new venture creation," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 153-175, March.
    6. Zoltan Acs, 2008. "How is Entrepreneurship Good for Economic Growth?," Chapters, in: Entrepreneurship, Growth and Public Policy, chapter 21, pages 291-301, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    7. Bill McKelvey, 1999. "Avoiding Complexity Catastrophe in Coevolutionary Pockets: Strategies for Rugged Landscapes," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 10(3), pages 294-321, June.
    8. Koberg, Christine S. & Uhlenbruck, Nikolaus & Sarason, Yolanda, 1996. "Facilitators of organizational innovation: The role of life-cycle stage," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 11(2), pages 133-149, March.
    9. Robert Drazin & Robert K. Kazanjian, 1990. "A reanalysis of miller and friesen's life cycle data," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(4), pages 319-325, May.
    10. Ardichvili, Alexander & Cardozo, Richard & Ray, Sourav, 2003. "A theory of entrepreneurial opportunity identification and development," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 105-123, January.
    11. Todd H. Chiles & Alan D. Meyer & Thomas J. Hench, 2004. "Organizational Emergence: The Origin and Transformation of Branson, Missouri's Musical Theaters," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 15(5), pages 499-519, October.
    12. Kazanjian, Robert K. & Drazin, Robert, 1990. "A stage-contingent model of design and growth for technology based new ventures," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 5(3), pages 137-150, May.
    13. John R. Ehrenfeld, 2007. "Would Industrial Ecology Exist without Sustainability in the Background?," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 11(1), pages 73-84, January.
    14. Danny Miller & Peter H. Friesen, 1984. "A Longitudinal Study of the Corporate Life Cycle," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(10), pages 1161-1183, October.
    15. Haridimos Tsoukas & Robert Chia, 2002. "On Organizational Becoming: Rethinking Organizational Change," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 13(5), pages 567-582, October.
    16. Daniel A. Levinthal, 1991. "Organizational Adaptation and Environmental Selection-Interrelated Processes of Change," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 2(1), pages 140-145, February.
    17. Alan D. Meyer & Vibha Gaba & Kenneth A. Colwell, 2005. "Organizing Far from Equilibrium: Nonlinear Change in Organizational Fields," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 16(5), pages 456-473, October.
    18. Nicolaj Siggelkow & Jan W. Rivkin, 2005. "Speed and Search: Designing Organizations for Turbulence and Complexity," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 16(2), pages 101-122, April.
    19. McCann, Joseph E., 1991. "Patterns of growth, competitive technology, and financial strategies in young ventures," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 6(3), pages 189-208, May.
    20. Francesca Lotti & Enrico Santarelli & Marco Vivarelli, 2003. "Does Gibrat's Law hold among young, small firms?," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 213-235, August.
    21. Sarason, Yolanda & Dean, Tom & Dillard, Jesse F., 2006. "Entrepreneurship as the nexus of individual and opportunity: A structuration view," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 286-305, May.
    22. Nicholls-Nixon, Charlene L. & Cooper, Arnold C. & Woo, Carolyn Y., 2000. "Strategic experimentation: Understanding change and performance in new ventures," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 15(5-6), pages 493-521.
    23. Robert K. Kazanjian & Robert Drazin, 1989. "An Empirical Test of a Stage of Growth Progression Model," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 35(12), pages 1489-1503, December.
    24. Robert Drazin & Lloyd Sandelands, 1992. "Autogenesis: A Perspective on the Process of Organizing," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 3(2), pages 230-249, May.
    25. H. Robert Dodge & Sam Fullerton & John E. Robbins, 1994. "Stage of the organizational life cycle and competition as mediators of problem perception for small businesses," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(2), pages 121-134, February.
    26. Chris Steyaert, 2007. "‘Entrepreneuring’ as a conceptual attractor? A review of process theories in 20 years of entrepreneurship studies," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(6), pages 453-477.
    27. Christoph Zott & Raphael Amit, 2007. "Business Model Design and the Performance of Entrepreneurial Firms," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 18(2), pages 181-199, April.
    28. Fleming, Lee & Sorenson, Olav, 2001. "Technology as a complex adaptive system: evidence from patent data," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(7), pages 1019-1039, August.
    29. Gerald F. Davis & Christopher Marquis, 2005. "Prospects for Organization Theory in the Early Twenty-First Century: Institutional Fields and Mechanisms," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 16(4), pages 332-343, August.
    30. Robert Macintosh & Donald Maclean, 1999. "Conditioned emergence: a dissipative structures approach to transformation," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(4), pages 297-316, April.
    31. Lichtenstein, Benyamin B. & Carter, Nancy M. & Dooley, Kevin J. & Gartner, William B., 2007. "Complexity dynamics of nascent entrepreneurship," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 236-261, March.
    32. C. K. Prahalad & Richard A. Bettis, 1986. "The dominant logic: A new linkage between diversity and performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 7(6), pages 485-501, November.
    33. Cardon, Melissa S. & Zietsma, Charlene & Saparito, Patrick & Matherne, Brett P. & Davis, Carolyn, 2005. "A tale of passion: New insights into entrepreneurship from a parenthood metaphor," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 23-45, January.
    34. Delmar, Frederic & Davidsson, Per & Gartner, William B., 2003. "Arriving at the high-growth firm," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 189-216, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bill McKelvey & Benyamin B. Lichtenstein & Pierpaolo Andriani, 2012. "When organisations and ecosystems interact: toward a law of requisite fractality in firms," International Journal of Complexity in Leadership and Management, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 2(1/2), pages 104-136.
    2. Crawford, G. Christopher & Aguinis, Herman & Lichtenstein, Benyamin & Davidsson, Per & McKelvey, Bill, 2015. "Power law distributions in entrepreneurship: Implications for theory and research," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 696-713.
    3. Lichtenstein, Benyamin B. & Carter, Nancy M. & Dooley, Kevin J. & Gartner, William B., 2007. "Complexity dynamics of nascent entrepreneurship," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 236-261, March.
    4. Lu, Jinfeng & Dimov, Dimo, 2023. "A system dynamics modelling of entrepreneurship and growth within firms," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 38(3).
    5. Grichnik, Dietmar & Smeja, Alexander & Welpe, Isabell, 2010. "The importance of being emotional: How do emotions affect entrepreneurial opportunity evaluation and exploitation?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 76(1), pages 15-29, October.
    6. Erik Lundmark & Anna Krzeminska & Dean A. Shepherd, 2019. "Images of Entrepreneurship: Exploring Root Metaphors and Expanding Upon Them," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 43(1), pages 138-170, January.
    7. Oliver Baumann, 2015. "Models of complex adaptive systems in strategy and organization research," Mind & Society: Cognitive Studies in Economics and Social Sciences, Springer;Fondazione Rosselli, vol. 14(2), pages 169-183, November.
    8. Dietmar Grichnik & Alexander Smeja & Isabell Welpe, 2010. "The Importance of Being Emotional: How do Emotions Affect Entrepreneurial Opportunity Evaluation and Exploitation?," Post-Print hal-00856603, HAL.
    9. Dimo Dimov, 2011. "Grappling with the Unbearable Elusiveness of Entrepreneurial Opportunities," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 35(1), pages 57-81, January.
    10. Alexander McKelvie & Johan Wiklund, 2010. "Advancing Firm Growth Research: A Focus on Growth Mode Instead of Growth Rate," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 34(2), pages 261-288, March.
    11. Matthew R. Marvel & G. T. Lumpkin, 2017. "Domain Learning and Opportunity Development in a High-Tech Context," Journal of Enterprising Culture (JEC), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 25(01), pages 67-96, March.
    12. Koberg, Christine S. & Uhlenbruck, Nikolaus & Sarason, Yolanda, 1996. "Facilitators of organizational innovation: The role of life-cycle stage," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 11(2), pages 133-149, March.
    13. Yeongjun Yeo & Chansoo Park, 2018. "Managing Growing Pains for the Sustainable Growth of Organizations: Evidence from the Growth Pathways and Strategic Choices of Korean Firms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-24, October.
    14. Moores, Ken & Yuen, Susana, 2001. "Management accounting systems and organizational configuration: a life-cycle perspective," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 26(4-5), pages 351-389.
    15. Crawford, G. Christopher & Joo, Harry & Aguinis, Herman, 2024. "Under the weight of heavy tails: A power law perspective on the emergence of outliers in entrepreneurship," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 21(C).
    16. Raymond-Alain Thietart, 2016. "Strategy dynamics: Agency, path dependency, and self-organized emergence," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(4), pages 774-792, April.
    17. Tamara Galkina & Irina Atkova, 2020. "Effectual Networks as Complex Adaptive Systems: Exploring Dynamic and Structural Factors of Emergence," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 44(5), pages 964-995, September.
    18. Sai Yayavaram & Wei-Ru Chen, 2015. "Changes in firm knowledge couplings and firm innovation performance: The moderating role of technological complexity," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(3), pages 377-396, March.
    19. Andranik Tumasjan & Isabell Welpe & Matthias Spörrle, 2013. "Easy Now, Desirable Later: The Moderating Role of Temporal Distance in Opportunity Evaluation and Exploitation," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 37(4), pages 859-888, July.
    20. Frenken, Koen, 2006. "A fitness landscape approach to technological complexity, modularity, and vertical disintegration," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 288-305, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:entthe:v:34:y:2010:i:2:p:317-350. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.