Entrepreneurial prototyping
The role of purpose, prototype recycling, and skills bricolage
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 14869717 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Steffen Paust (0000-0002-5466-1934, University of Southern Denmark, corresponding author), Steffen Korsgaard (0000-0001-7396-0975, University of Southern Denmark), Claus Thrane (0000-0002-8941-0828, Aarhus University) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 64 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 407-431 |
| Publication date | 2025-02-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Small Business Economics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0921-898X • E-ISSN: 1573-0913 |
| Publisher | Springer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1007/s11187-024-00922-2 |
| OpenAlex | W4394725316 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 108 |
This paper explores how entrepreneurs engage in prototyping as part of the venture development process. We conduct a qualitative field study of 156 instances of prototyping across eight venture development processes. From a theoretical perspective, we build on alternative and complementary views of entrepreneurial action and their implicit modes of prototyping, emphasizing experimentation and transformation. Our findings identify three important themes in the prototyping process. These include purposes where the entrepreneurs use prototyping for either flexible experimentation or directed transformation. Further, the entrepreneurs predominantly engage in prototype recycling and skills bricolage when prototyping. Accordingly, the studied entrepreneurs carefully navigate purpose and resource investments in prototyping, making extensive use of their existing resource base of skills and prototypes. After noting the positive aspects of prototyping, we also discuss the potentially destructive outcomes of misapplied prototyping in the form of prototyping myopia and problematic path dependencies of the different ways of prototyping
Bricolage · Business · Entrepreneurship · Manufacturing engineering · Rapid prototyping · Cultural Industries and Urban Development · Engineering · Entrepreneurship Studies and Influences · Innovation and Knowledge Management · Mechanical Engineering
Effectuation
Causation and Effectuation
Doing Design Thinking
What do business models do?
Achieving Rigor in Qualitative Analysis
A Systematic Methodology for Doing Qualitative Research
Seeking Qualitative Rigor in Inductive Research
Opportunities as Artifacts and Entrepreneurship as Design
Qualitative Research Interviewing
Doing Interviews
Why Designing Is Not Experimenting
Comparing effectuation to discovery-driven planning, prescriptive entrepreneurship, business planning, lean startup, and design thinking
Coding qualitative data
Entrepreneurship as Experimentation
Grounded Theory and Sensitizing Concepts
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |