Browsing by Author "de Koning, Alice"

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    A Neopragmatist Approach To Entrepreneurship Research
    (2022-03-15) Schaefer, Reiner; Keyhani, Mohammad; Weinhardt, Justin; de Koning, Alice; Dick, David; Gartner, William
    This dissertation will use neopragmatist philosophy (particularly the work of Robert Brandom and Donald Davidson) to examine three important concepts in entrepreneurship theorizing: entrepreneurial uncertainty, venture ideas, and entrepreneurial opportunities. Neopragmatist philosophers typically understand meaning, objectivity, correct reasoning, and knowledge in terms of social-linguistic interpretive practices. Each of these concepts are perspectival in the sense that different people will interpret others as having a different view than themselves on what is actually objective etc.. According to neopragmatists we should analyse these concepts not by trying to identify any sort of criteria which distinguishes which perspectives are actually correct (e.g. what is actually known), but instead identify how these concepts are used when people try to interpret the perspectives of others in relation to their own. This dissolves many difficult ontological problems (e.g. realism vs constructivism). I will argue that the concepts ‘entrepreneurial uncertainty’, ‘venture ideas’, and ‘entrepreneurial opportunities’ are similarly perspectival and that a neopragmatist lens allows us to fruitfully understand them in terms of how we scholars use them when interpreting the perspectives of the entrepreneurs we are studying—who are in turn interpreting the perspectives of their stakeholders. In chapter two I will argue that Knightian uncertainty (understood as the inability to calculate probabilities) seems largely irrelevant to practicing entrepreneurs, and that we should reconceptualize and study entrepreneurial uncertainty as a lack of social justificatory resources. In chapter three I argue that instead of conceptualizing venture ideas as mental representations we should instead conceptualize them in terms of their role in social justificatory practices whereby entrepreneurs have to navigate how their perspectives diverge from their stakeholders. In Chapter four I argue that when an entrepreneurship scholars says that an entrepreneur pursues an opportunity they are not only claiming that the entrepreneur perceives the course of action as favourable, but are themselves taking a stand on its favourability relative to whatever theoretical lens they are using. The question “what are entrepreneurial opportunities” ceases to be an ontological debate and becomes instead a more fruitful debate about how we scholars can bring relevant theoretical insights to the perspectives of practicing entrepreneurs.
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    Taking it to the Streets: Community-based pedagogy for all disciplines
    (2019-05-01) de Koning, Alice; McArdle, John
    Street Challenge is a platform for experiential learning to engage students in researching (inter-)disciplinary concepts in a specific neighbourhood context. Instructors can apply Street Challenge resources to one class or a whole course; this workshop introduces the platform and engages participants’ creativity to apply Street Challenge to diverse disciplines. The workshop will take 15-20 minutes to explain Street Challenge by describing the application in one course, and listing the range of resources available in the platform. Next participants will work in groups to apply Street Challenge in the context of a specific course in diverse disciplines, followed by an opportunity to share and discuss the ideas. The session will close by inviting participants to join a community of practice to pilot Street Challenge.