Intra-Preneurship and Enrolment
Building Networks of Ideas
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20500896 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Andrea Whittle (0000-0003-0837-7403, Cardiff Business School, Cardiff, UK,, corresponding author), Frank Mueller (0000-0003-0891-3261, University of St Andrews, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2008 |
| Volume | 15 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 445-462 |
| Publication date | 2008-05-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Organization (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1350-5084 • E-ISSN: 1461-7323 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/1350508408088539 |
| OpenAlex | W2077106483 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 34 |
In this paper we draw on and develop an actor-network perspective on organizational entrepreneurship—the study of enterprising behaviour within the firm. Based on the findings of an in-depth study of management consultants in a UK telecommunications firm, we argue that ideas do not flourish because they are inherently more `enterprising' or `innovative' than others, but rather because of the success (or otherwise) of the process of `enrolment'. Our study shows that the consultants were not `intermediaries without discretion', tasked with the diffusion of an already-established template. Rather, they acted as mediators by actively seeking to construct and maintain a network around their idea. By revealing the political tactics and power plays involved in this enrolment process, our study contributes to the actor-network literature by highlighting the link to organizational power and politics. The study also contributes by drawing attention to the subjectivity of network-builders—an issue often left under-explored in actor-network studies. We illuminate the identity processes involved in organizational entrepreneurship, including the link to systems of organizational control. This was fuelled by a mixture of anxiety, insecurity and the desire to be recognized as an `intra-preneur'
Actor–network theory · Business · Entrepreneurship · Epistemology · Intermediary · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Social science · Sociology · Subjectivity · Computer Science · Entrepreneurship Studies and Influences · Innovation and Knowledge Management · Law · Management and Organizational Studies · Marketing
Discursive Formations, Strategized Subordination and Self-Surveillance
Travels of Ideas
The Consultancy Process — An Insecure Business?
Power and Discretion
The Invincible Character of Management Consulting Rhetoric
Modernity and Self-Identity
Consumption and Identity at Work
Reassembling the Social
Quantity and Quality in Social Research
Politics and Organizational Change
The ambivalence of professional identity
Managing Managerial Identities
Quantity and quality in social research
Identities and Insecurities
On the Methods of Long-Distance Control
Power, Technology and the Phenomenology of Conventions
Technology is Society Made Durable
Career as a Project of the Self and Labour Process Discipline
Power and Subjectivity at Work
| Citations per year | 0.29 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2012 - 2019 (8) |
| Highly cited | No |