"Thinking technology" in mature industry firms: Understanding technology entrepreneurship

Abstract

Technological entrepreneurship is important yet difficult in mature industry firms because so many cues impede understanding that change is needed, or interpreting new data effectively, instead reinforcing old views. A cognitive approach to innovation suggests why, and offers insights illustrated by accounts of 3 mature-industry innovation episodes. Technology entrepreneurship is shown as a quintessentially social activity, requiring joint efforts to interpret ambiguous data, joint understanding to sustain technology efforts, and a persistent, coordinated endeavor to accomplish technological change. The nominally managerial tasks of sensemaking, mindful alertness to anomalies, and the joint creation of a new shared cognitive context are broadly shared in these accounts, and stand out as the underpinnings of technological entrepreneurship.