New paper accepted about external enablement of entrepreneurship

7 January 2025

The paper "EXTERNAL ENABLEMENT OF ENTREPRENEURIAL ACTION AND OUTCOMES: EXTENSION, REVIEW, AND RESEARCH AGENDA" has been accepted for publication in the journal Foundations and Trends® in Entrepreneurship. An abstract of the paper is below and a preprint can be accessed here.

ABSTRACT
The term ‘external enabler’ (EE) is a collective label for non-trivial changes to emerging and established organizations’ (macro) environment, such as new technologies, regulatory changes, demographic and sociocultural trends, and changes to the natural environment. Two fundamental assumptions of EE scholarship are that all such changes benefit some organizations, and that different types of change can offer similar benefits and strategic potentials for strategic action. The external enabler framework (EEF) develops structure and vocabulary to guide cumulative knowledge development across different types of such environmental changes to inspire and guide research and practice regarding strategic and fortuitous leveraging of EEs in entrepreneurial pursuits. Citation statistics and a growing number of applications and extensions suggest that the EEF has been well received, and its application area has expanded well beyond its original domain of independent business startups to also include mission-oriented ventures, new initiatives and growth of established organizations of all sizes and ages, and the creation or rejuvenation of industries, ecosystems, and local economies. In this article, we update and elaborate on the EEF and review the scholarship that has evolved around it to take stock of past developments and guide and inspire future research and practice in this important domain.