Papers by Péter Erdélyi
This paper is a comprehensive review of the entrepreneurial learning literature and its engagemen... more This paper is a comprehensive review of the entrepreneurial learning literature and its engagement with the material aspects of entrepreneurship, as part of the “material turn” in the social sciences. Drawing on actor-network theory, we construct a classificatory scheme and an evaluative matrix to find that this field is dominated by an anthropocentric bias and cognitivist approaches which largely ignore issues of materiality in entrepreneurship. However we also identify some heterogeneous network-based conceptualisations of entrepreneurial learning which could provide the foundations for more materially aware approaches. We conclude by calling for a material turn in entrepreneurial learning and outline some possible avenues for it.
Books by Péter Erdélyi
The Prince and the Wolf contains the transcript of a debate which took place on 5th February 2008... more The Prince and the Wolf contains the transcript of a debate which took place on 5th February 2008 at the London School of Economics (LSE) between the prominent French sociologist, anthropologist, and philosopher Bruno Latour and the Cairo-based American philosopher Graham Harman. The occasion for the debate was the impending publication of Harman’s book, Prince of Networks: Bruno Latour and Metaphysics. During the discussion, Latour (the ‘Prince’) compared the professional philosophers who have pursued him over the years to a pack of wolves. The Prince and the Wolf is the story of what happens when the wolf catches up with the prince. Latour and Harman engage in brisk and witty conversation about questions that go to the heart of both metaphysics and research methodology: What are objects? How do they interact? And best how to study them?
Book Chapters by Péter Erdélyi
In a recent special issue of Marketing Theory, Araujo et al. (2008) call on the marketing dis... more In a recent special issue of Marketing Theory, Araujo et al. (2008) call on the marketing discipline to embrace the insights of the social study of markets in economic sociology as a promising avenue for revitalising the classical concepts of marketing. Drawing on the research programme launched by Michel Callon’s 1998 volume, The Laws of the Markets, they suggest that one traditional disciplinary distinction be abandoned in particular: “Although convenient, a distinction between market-making practices – defined as activities that shape the overall market structure – and marketing practices – defined as firm-based activities aimed at developing an actor’s position within a structure – is misleading” (Araujo et al., 2008: 8).
In this paper, we take up Araujo et al.’s (2008) call to deploy such a constructivist economic sociology perspective in the study of an empirical case. The case study concerns the emergence of the so-called romkert (meaning ‘ruin garden’) or romkocsma (‘ruin pub’) phenomenon in Budapest between 1999 and 2008 (see Lugosi and Lugosi, 2008). A ruin or rom bar, terms we use interchangeably in this paper, is a hospitality venue that incorporates its ruinous surroundings (such as dilapidated courtyards and other distressed material goods) as part of its service concept and the consumer experience. We re-describe this case using the actor-network theory (ANT) perspective of Callon and colleagues.
Thesis by Péter Erdélyi
Constructing entrepreneurial markets for innovations: the emergence of e-commerce entrepreneurship in the south of England
This thesis examines how the disruptive innovation of e-commerce took hold among small retailers ... more This thesis examines how the disruptive innovation of e-commerce took hold among small retailers in the South of England in the first decade of the 21st century. It describes empirically how a regional business-to-business market—providing e-commerce business services (EBS) to retail start-ups and small firms—emerged and operated, and how the goods traded in this market were evaluated. This market can be defined as an entrepreneurial market for an innovation because the market goods (EBS) constitute an innovation to be adopted by micro-enterprises as means of production to enable them to retail their own goods online to consumers. The study investigates two practical problems that concern the construction and operation of entrepreneurial markets for innovations: 1) how small firms as buyers of productive means evaluate complex, intangible market goods (such as EBS), given their lack of resources for conducting such evaluations; and 2) how policy makers and market makers address the market failure that is perceived to hinder the emergence of entrepreneurial markets. At the same time, this research also addresses the theoretical issues of how to define entrepreneurship, innovation, and markets and how to conceptualise the relationships between them, by empirically tracing and articulating the connections between the activities, objects, and places that constitute these phenomena. Actor-network theory (ANT) was utilised as a research approach to study an e-commerce community across two English counties, using ethnographic methods to collect data via participant observation, interviews, and documents between 2006 and 2010. ANT's material-semiotic method was deployed to trace the emergence, transformations, and workings of the socio-material network of institutions, policies, and technical artefacts that have enabled the functioning of this regional entrepreneurial market for EBS. Industry events such seminars, workshops, and conferences emerged as important marketplaces for establishing—through various trials—the qualities of buyers, sellers, and the EBS.
Conference Presentations by Péter Erdélyi
Dragons’ Den style contests as market devices: Constructing entrepreneurial markets for e-commerce in Southern England
In this empirical paper we trace the emergence, construction, design, composition and functioning... more In this empirical paper we trace the emergence, construction, design, composition and functioning of a specific marketplace for e-commerce business services (EBS) in the South of England in 2007 and 2008. This marketplace served as one of the mechanisms for the spread of the innovation of online retailing among start-ups and micro-enterprises in the region. The marketplace occasions in question were provided by two series of semi-public assessment events, the e-Tailers' Den contests, which were developed by a market making micro-enterprise, and were partly fashioned after a popular BBC Two's television series, Dragons' Den.
Drawing on actor-network theory, we used ethnographic methods for data collection and analysis, including participant observation, interviews, and documentary evidence. We describe how these Dragons' Den style events operated as socio-technical devices for the performance of a set of market functions. They facilitated encounters between buyers and sellers of EBS, and offered mechanisms for running experimental assessment processes. These qualification trials enabled the articulation of the qualities of buyers (e-tail micro-enterprises), the sellers (EBS providers), and the market goods (the EBS as prospective long-term service relationships). The e-Tailers' Dens thus functioned as market devices, but also as devices for entrepreneurial reflection and judgement.
While the goings-on at these events could be characterised as manifestations of a 'knowledge-based economy,' the prominent role of contests, aided by the popularisation of their format by mass media, offer an alternative interpretation. They were occasions of a 'test society', an economy and a culture based on the promotion of qualification trials.
Implementing the knowledge-based economy: Market devices as policy instruments
We chart the rise and fall of Business Link as a policy instrument for furthering the knowledge-b... more We chart the rise and fall of Business Link as a policy instrument for furthering the knowledge-based economy, while also examining how it was implemented by one particular Business Link Operator in Southern England. We zoom in on the specific policy objective to encourage SMEs to adopt e-commerce, which was singled out by the Blair government as a key innovation that marked a competitive "knowledge-driven economy." Drawing on qualitative data and analysis (including policy documents, media reports and interviews with Personal Business Advisers), we undertake a socio-material description of Business Link's enterprise support activities. We found that the implementation of Business Link by successive UK governments required the construction and operation of socio-technical devices to perform a variety of market functions to address a perceived market failure that was thought to impede the rate of SMEs’ adoption of managerial and technological innovations. We show that the effectiveness and efficiency of these market devices depended on their particular design, composition, and mode of deployment, and that after the Labour government’s 2005 reforms broke the original market devices, Business Link actors created new ones to perform those market functions and fulfil the policy objectives, sometimes in contravention of government rules.
The Matter of Entrepreneurial Learning: A Literature Review
Situated in the context of the “material turn” in the social sciences, this paper is a comprehens... more Situated in the context of the “material turn” in the social sciences, this paper is a comprehensive review of the entrepreneurial learning literature and its engagement with the material aspects of entrepreneurship. We draw on actor-network theory to construct a classificatory scheme and an evaluative matrix to order the literature on the basis of its material concerns. We find that this field is dominated by an anthropocentric bias and cognitivist approaches which largely ignore issues of materiality in entrepreneurship. However we also identify some heterogeneous network-based conceptualisations of entrepreneurial learning which could provide the foundations for more materially aware approaches. We conclude by calling for a material turn in entrepreneurial learning and outline possible avenues for it.
From Marketing to Market Practices: Assembling the Ruin Bars of Budapest [Winner of Best Paper Award]
In a recent special issue of Marketing Theory, Araujo et al. (2008) call on the marketing discipl... more In a recent special issue of Marketing Theory, Araujo et al. (2008) call on the marketing discipline to embrace the insights of the social study of markets in economic sociology as a promising avenue for revitalising the classical concepts of marketing. Drawing on the research programme launched by Michel Callon’s 1998 volume, The Laws of the Markets, they suggest that one traditional disciplinary distinction be abandoned in particular: “Although convenient, a distinction between market-making practices – defined as activities that shape the overall market structure – and marketing practices – defined as firm-based activities aimed at developing an actor’s position within a structure – is misleading” (Araujo et al., 2008: 8).
In this paper, we take up Araujo et al.’s (2008) call to deploy such a constructivist economic sociology perspective in the study of an empirical case. The case study concerns the emergence of the so-called romkert (meaning ‘ruin garden’) or romkocsma (‘ruin pub’) phenomenon in Budapest between 1999 and 2008 (see Lugosi and Lugosi, 2008). A ruin or rom bar, terms we use interchangeably in this paper, is a hospitality venue that incorporates its ruinous surroundings (such as dilapidated courtyards and other distressed material goods) as part of its service concept and the consumer experience. We re-describe this case using the actor-network theory (ANT) perspective of Callon and colleagues.
The Qualification of E-Commerce Services: A Case Study of Entrepreneurial Learning in the Technological Economy
“How does e-commerce innovation take place in the knowledge-based economy?” and “How do e-commerc... more “How does e-commerce innovation take place in the knowledge-based economy?” and “How do e-commerce entrepreneurs acquire the technologies and the competence to build their online retail organisations?” I approach these research questions by way of a qualitative case study of an e-commerce community in the South of England between 2007 and 2009, and in particular by focusing on the entrepreneurial learning practices of three focal companies. Drawing on actor-network theory and in particular the work of Michel Callon and his colleagues in economic sociology, I trace the processes by which these e-commerce enterprises emerge as heterogeneous assemblages.
This pursuit of the assembling practices of e-commerce entrepreneurs has identified the acquisition of e-commerce services (services required to sustain an e-commerce firm as such) as a central matter of concern for these entrepreneurs. I argue that the various entrepreneurial learning groups and conferences that emerged locally to deal with this matter of concern can be understood as marketplaces for the qualification of e-commerce services. Qualification is the process by which products or services acquire their qualities and values as economic goods.
My main claim is that the qualification of e-commerce services is simultaneously an “internal” firm process and an “external” market process, which connects not only the site of the firm and the site of the market, but also the micro-enterprises with the macro-actors that take part in the construction of these technological economy marketplaces. Entrepreneurial learning and qualification of services are thus one and the same thing in the technological economy.
The Qualification of E-Commerce Services
The Qualification of e-Commerce Business Services for Small Firms
A Break from the Routine: Studying Strategising Practices at a Small E-Commerce Retailer with Actor-Network Theory
Organising Performance in E-Commerce Firms: A Multi-Case Study of Small Retailers in the South of England
Organizing Competences: The Role of ICTs in Strategy Formation in SMEs
Invited Talks by Péter Erdélyi
Actor-Network Theory and the Technological Economy
Designs on E-Communications: Assembling Knowledge Networks
Surviving Startup Pilot Project - EU INTERREG IIIB Atlantic Net Programme
Talks by Péter Erdélyi
Constructing entrepreneurial markets for innovations: The emergence of e-commerce entrepreneurship in the South of England
In this talk I will examine how the disruptive innovation of e-commerce took hold among small ret... more In this talk I will examine how the disruptive innovation of e-commerce took hold among small retailers in the South of England in the first decade of the 21st century. Using actor-network theory (ANT) and ethnographic methods, I will describe empirically how a regional business-to-business market for e-commerce business services (EBS) emerged and operated across two English counties.
I will seek answers to two practical problems that concern the construction and operation of such entrepreneurial markets for innovations: 1) how e-tail start-ups and retail micro-enterprises, as buyers of productive means, evaluate complex, intangible market goods (such as EBS) when they lack resources for conducting such evaluations; and 2) how policy makers and market makers address the market failure that is perceived to hinder the emergence of entrepreneurial markets for innovations.
At the same time, this empirical investigation will also provide opportunities to reconsider and revise dominant definitions of entrepreneurship, innovation, and markets, and the relationships between them, as part of a general theory of entrepreneurship.
What is Entrepreneurial Learning?
Entrepreneurial learning is an observable practice, something entrepreneurs engage in; it is a no... more Entrepreneurial learning is an observable practice, something entrepreneurs engage in; it is a notion that has started to receive increasingly explicit articulation in academic literature in the past decade; and it is a key policy objective in the United Kingdom, implemented through funded programmes targeted at entrepreneurs. Despite its relatively short history, the entrepreneurial learning literature consists of a variety of theoretical approaches focusing on a diverse range of phenomena. In this talk I will provide a comprehensive overview of existing conceptualisations of entrepreneurial learning and evaluate them on the basis of their contribution to understanding entrepreneurship as a thoroughly material process of new venture creation.
From Marketing to Market Practices: Assembling the Ruin Bars of Budapest
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Papers by Péter Erdélyi
Books by Péter Erdélyi
Book Chapters by Péter Erdélyi
In this paper, we take up Araujo et al.’s (2008) call to deploy such a constructivist economic sociology perspective in the study of an empirical case. The case study concerns the emergence of the so-called romkert (meaning ‘ruin garden’) or romkocsma (‘ruin pub’) phenomenon in Budapest between 1999 and 2008 (see Lugosi and Lugosi, 2008). A ruin or rom bar, terms we use interchangeably in this paper, is a hospitality venue that incorporates its ruinous surroundings (such as dilapidated courtyards and other distressed material goods) as part of its service concept and the consumer experience. We re-describe this case using the actor-network theory (ANT) perspective of Callon and colleagues.
Thesis by Péter Erdélyi
Conference Presentations by Péter Erdélyi
Drawing on actor-network theory, we used ethnographic methods for data collection and analysis, including participant observation, interviews, and documentary evidence. We describe how these Dragons' Den style events operated as socio-technical devices for the performance of a set of market functions. They facilitated encounters between buyers and sellers of EBS, and offered mechanisms for running experimental assessment processes. These qualification trials enabled the articulation of the qualities of buyers (e-tail micro-enterprises), the sellers (EBS providers), and the market goods (the EBS as prospective long-term service relationships). The e-Tailers' Dens thus functioned as market devices, but also as devices for entrepreneurial reflection and judgement.
While the goings-on at these events could be characterised as manifestations of a 'knowledge-based economy,' the prominent role of contests, aided by the popularisation of their format by mass media, offer an alternative interpretation. They were occasions of a 'test society', an economy and a culture based on the promotion of qualification trials.
In this paper, we take up Araujo et al.’s (2008) call to deploy such a constructivist economic sociology perspective in the study of an empirical case. The case study concerns the emergence of the so-called romkert (meaning ‘ruin garden’) or romkocsma (‘ruin pub’) phenomenon in Budapest between 1999 and 2008 (see Lugosi and Lugosi, 2008). A ruin or rom bar, terms we use interchangeably in this paper, is a hospitality venue that incorporates its ruinous surroundings (such as dilapidated courtyards and other distressed material goods) as part of its service concept and the consumer experience. We re-describe this case using the actor-network theory (ANT) perspective of Callon and colleagues.
This pursuit of the assembling practices of e-commerce entrepreneurs has identified the acquisition of e-commerce services (services required to sustain an e-commerce firm as such) as a central matter of concern for these entrepreneurs. I argue that the various entrepreneurial learning groups and conferences that emerged locally to deal with this matter of concern can be understood as marketplaces for the qualification of e-commerce services. Qualification is the process by which products or services acquire their qualities and values as economic goods.
My main claim is that the qualification of e-commerce services is simultaneously an “internal” firm process and an “external” market process, which connects not only the site of the firm and the site of the market, but also the micro-enterprises with the macro-actors that take part in the construction of these technological economy marketplaces. Entrepreneurial learning and qualification of services are thus one and the same thing in the technological economy.
Invited Talks by Péter Erdélyi
Talks by Péter Erdélyi
I will seek answers to two practical problems that concern the construction and operation of such entrepreneurial markets for innovations: 1) how e-tail start-ups and retail micro-enterprises, as buyers of productive means, evaluate complex, intangible market goods (such as EBS) when they lack resources for conducting such evaluations; and 2) how policy makers and market makers address the market failure that is perceived to hinder the emergence of entrepreneurial markets for innovations.
At the same time, this empirical investigation will also provide opportunities to reconsider and revise dominant definitions of entrepreneurship, innovation, and markets, and the relationships between them, as part of a general theory of entrepreneurship.