The dynamics of proactive striving: Initiating and sustaining development efforts in product design and entrepreneurship

Tua A. Björklund

The dynamics of proactive striving: Initiating and sustaining development efforts in product design and entrepreneurship

Julkaisun otsikon käännös: Proaktiivisen toiminnan dynamiikka – Kehittämisen käynnistäminen ja ylläpitäminen tuotesuunnittelussa ja yrittäjyydessä

Tua A. Björklund

Tuotantotalouden laitos

Tutkimustuotos: Doctoral Thesis › Collection of Articles

Abstrakti

Parhaimmatkaan ideat eivät etene itsekseen organisaatiossa, vaan tarjolla olevien tilaisuuksien hyödyntäminen edellyttää proaktiivista toimintaa. Suurin osa yrittäjyys- ja tuotekehitystutkimuksesta on kuitenkin tarkastellut proaktiivisuutta lähinnä yksilön ominaisuutena, ja tutkimus yleisemminkin on painottunut tavoitteiden asettamiseen, ideointiin ja päätöksentekoon. Mutta mitä tapahtuu sen jälkeen kun päätös idean toteuttamisesta on tehty? Tämä väitöskirja tutki proaktiivisen toimintaprosessin käynnistämistä ja ylläpitoa tuotekehityksessä ja yrittäjyydessä. Se pohjautuu kvalitatiiviseen tutkimukseen 4566 segmentistä, jotka saatiin 80 haastattelusta kolmessatoista organisaatiossa. Neljästä empiirisestä esseestä ensimmäinen perustui kokeeseen tuotekehityksen asiantuntijoiden ja opiskelijoiden välisistä eroista toimeksiantojen tulkinnassa. Proaktiivinen toiminta nousi esiin jo tässä varhaisessa vaiheessa: taitavammilla kehittäjillä oli kattavammat ja kytketymmät representaatiot. Kolme naturalistista tutkimusta kartoittivat ideoiden edistämistä kahdessa tuotekehitysprojektissa, työpanosten dynamiikkaa uuden organisaation luomisessa ja kehittämisessä, ja pitkittäistutkimuksessa ensimmäisen tarjoaman kehittämistä neljässä uudessa yrityksessä. Kaikissa näissä tutkimuksissa korostui ympäristön palautteen rooli proaktiivisen toiminnan ylläpitäjänä ja lisääjänä. Välillä hyvän kokonaistuloksen saavuttaminen vaati paikallista tehottomuutta aikaavievien ja kattavien yhteistyö- ja viestintäkäytäntöjen myötä. Kehitystyötä kuvaavasta geneerisestä suppilomallista voidaan tulosten perusteella muokata proaktiivisen toiminnan prosessimalli. Malli korostaa tarvetta tukea konkreettista tekemistä ja tekojen jatkuvaa iteratiivista tarkentamista. Se tuo kaksi keskeistä näkökulmaa proaktiivisen toiminnan dynamiikan ymmärtämiseen. Ensinnäkin malli korostaa mahdollisia epäjatkuvuuskohtia proaktiivisen toiminnan liikkuessa kolmen ilmentymätason (mikrotason tekojen, keskitason toimintojen ja globaalitason lähestymistapojen) välillä. Toiseksi, malli painottaa positiivisten itseään vahvistavien kehien mahdollisuutta yksilö-ympäristö vuorovaikutuksen seurauksena: kehitysideoita konkretisoivien rajaobjektien luominen tarjosi palautetta onnistumismahdollisuuksista, rohkaisi alkuvaiheen sidosryhmien panostusta, ja ylläpiti proaktiivista toimintaa energisoimalla ja sitouttamalla sekä yksilöä itseään että sidosryhmiä. Malli auttaa tunnistamaan useita mahdollisuuksia proaktiivisuuden tukemiseen ja tehostamiseen yksinkertaisilla toimenpiteillä.

Julkaisun otsikon käännös	Proaktiivisen toiminnan dynamiikka – Kehittämisen käynnistäminen ja ylläpitäminen tuotesuunnittelussa ja yrittäjyydessä
Alkuperäiskieli	Englanti
Pätevyys	Tohtorintutkinto
Myöntävä instituutio	Aalto-yliopisto
Valvoja/neuvonantaja	Vartiainen, Matti, Vastuuprofessori
Kustantaja	Aalto University
Painoksen ISBN	978-952-60-6366-9
Sähköinen ISBN	978-952-60-6367-6
Tila	Julkaistu - 2015
OKM-julkaisutyyppi	G5 Artikkeliväitöskirja

Tutkimusalat

proaktiivinen toiminta
tuotekehitys
yrittäjämäinen käyttäytyminen
pienyritykset
ideoiden kehitys
innovaatioprosessi
rajaobjektit

Pääsy asiakirjaan

http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-60-6367-6Lisenssi: Määrittelemätön

Sormenjälki

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abstract = "Not even brilliant ideas advance themselves. In all organizations, proactive efforts are required to translate opportunities into actual improvements. However, most research on proactivity in entrepreneurship and product design has addressed dispositional antecedents, and research in general tends to focus on goal setting, idea generation, and decision-making. But what happens after the initial decision to pursue an idea has been made? In this dissertation, a qualitative approach building on 4566 interview segments from 80 interviews in 13 organizations was used to explore how the process of proactive striving in product design and entrepreneurship is initiated and sustained. The four empirical essays included one experiment on how product design experts and students differed in their interpretations of design briefs. Proactive striving was observed already at this stage: more successful developers had more extensive, in-depth, and interconnected representations. The essays also included three naturalistic studies: idea advancement in two product design projects, attracting resources and other input in creating a new organization, and a longitudinal study of four new companies developing their first offering market-ready. In all of these studies, feedback from the environment emerged as a crucial mechanism for sustaining and even escalating proactive striving behaviors. Sometimes this required time-consuming inclusion and communication practices, creating the need for local inefficiency to produce global effectiveness. Based on the results, the generic idea development funnel can be modified into a process model of the enactment of proactive striving. In addition to recognizing the need for pruning non-action from fruitful action and progressively specifying actions in concrete iterations, the model makes two key contributions towards understanding the dynamics of initiating and sustaining proactive striving. First, it emphasizes potential discontinuities in efforts due to transitioning between three different levels of proactive effort manifestations: micro-level specific actions, intermediate-level activities, and global-level approaches. Second, it highlights the potential for positive spirals through individual-environment interaction: creating concretizing approximations of the pursued ideas in the form of boundary objects provided feedback on the feasibility of efforts, encouraged initial stakeholder input, and sustained efforts by energizing and committing developers and stakeholders alike. The model also illuminates several opportunities for enhancing development efforts with relatively minor interventions.",

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AB - Not even brilliant ideas advance themselves. In all organizations, proactive efforts are required to translate opportunities into actual improvements. However, most research on proactivity in entrepreneurship and product design has addressed dispositional antecedents, and research in general tends to focus on goal setting, idea generation, and decision-making. But what happens after the initial decision to pursue an idea has been made? In this dissertation, a qualitative approach building on 4566 interview segments from 80 interviews in 13 organizations was used to explore how the process of proactive striving in product design and entrepreneurship is initiated and sustained. The four empirical essays included one experiment on how product design experts and students differed in their interpretations of design briefs. Proactive striving was observed already at this stage: more successful developers had more extensive, in-depth, and interconnected representations. The essays also included three naturalistic studies: idea advancement in two product design projects, attracting resources and other input in creating a new organization, and a longitudinal study of four new companies developing their first offering market-ready. In all of these studies, feedback from the environment emerged as a crucial mechanism for sustaining and even escalating proactive striving behaviors. Sometimes this required time-consuming inclusion and communication practices, creating the need for local inefficiency to produce global effectiveness. Based on the results, the generic idea development funnel can be modified into a process model of the enactment of proactive striving. In addition to recognizing the need for pruning non-action from fruitful action and progressively specifying actions in concrete iterations, the model makes two key contributions towards understanding the dynamics of initiating and sustaining proactive striving. First, it emphasizes potential discontinuities in efforts due to transitioning between three different levels of proactive effort manifestations: micro-level specific actions, intermediate-level activities, and global-level approaches. Second, it highlights the potential for positive spirals through individual-environment interaction: creating concretizing approximations of the pursued ideas in the form of boundary objects provided feedback on the feasibility of efforts, encouraged initial stakeholder input, and sustained efforts by energizing and committing developers and stakeholders alike. The model also illuminates several opportunities for enhancing development efforts with relatively minor interventions.

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