IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jobuve/v21y2024ics2352673424000167.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The future in the mirror and behind it: Scientists and more

Author

Listed:
  • Dimov, Dimo

Abstract

This paper argues that the framework of entrepreneurs-as-scientists, portraying entrepreneurs as tasked with making precise and reliable inferences, and expressed in certain mathematical language, trivializes entrepreneurial practice. I highlight the challenges that arise from replacing the abstract notations of mathematical language with names from ordinary language of entrepreneurship. Co-opting of ordinary language for mathematical purposes distorts our understanding of business ideas, venture development, and entrepreneurial processes. At stake are different conceptions of the future. One creates the future within language, the other accepts that the future lies outside of language as an untameable realm of perpetual novelty.

Suggested Citation

  • Dimov, Dimo, 2024. "The future in the mirror and behind it: Scientists and more," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 21(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jobuve:v:21:y:2024:i:c:s2352673424000167
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbvi.2024.e00464
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352673424000167
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbvi.2024.e00464?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Arnaldo Camuffo & Alessandro Cordova & Alfonso Gambardella & Chiara Spina, 2020. "A Scientific Approach to Entrepreneurial Decision Making: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(2), pages 564-586, February.
    2. Mark D. Packard & Brent B. Clark & Peter G. Klein, 2017. "Uncertainty Types and Transitions in the Entrepreneurial Process," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 28(5), pages 840-856, October.
    3. Muñoz, Pablo & Dimov, Dimo, 2023. "Facing the future through entrepreneurship theory: A prospective inquiry framework," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 38(4).
    4. Dimo Dimov, 2010. "Nascent Entrepreneurs and Venture Emergence: Opportunity Confidence, Human Capital, and Early Planning," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(6), pages 1123-1153, September.
    5. Davidsson, Per & Grégoire, Denis A. & Lex, Maike, 2021. "Venture Idea Assessment (VIA): Development of a needed concept, measure, and research agenda," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 36(5).
    6. Dimo Dimov, 2011. "Grappling with the Unbearable Elusiveness of Entrepreneurial Opportunities," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 35(1), pages 57-81, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sergeeva, Anastasia & Bhardwaj, Akhil & Dimov, Dimo, 2021. "In the heat of the game: Analogical abduction in a pragmatist account of entrepreneurial reasoning," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 36(6).
    2. Aparicio, Sebastian & Urbano, David & Stenholm, Pekka, 2021. "Attracting the entrepreneurial potential: A multilevel institutional approach," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    3. Ramoglou, Stratos, 2021. "Knowable opportunities in an unknowable future? On the epistemological paradoxes of entrepreneurship theory," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 36(2).
    4. Kurdoglu, Rasim Serdar & Lerner, Daniel & Ates, Nufer Yasin, 2022. "Unsticking the rationality stalemate: Motivated reasoning, reality, and irrationality," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 18(C).
    5. Heiko Bergmann, 2017. "The formation of opportunity beliefs among university entrepreneurs: an empirical study of research- and non-research-driven venture ideas," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 116-140, February.
    6. Jeffery S. McMullen & Dimo Dimov, 2013. "Time and the Entrepreneurial Journey: The Problems and Promise of Studying Entrepreneurship as a Process," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(8), pages 1481-1512, December.
    7. Wood, Matthew S. & McKelvie, Alexander & Haynie, J. Michael, 2014. "Making it personal: Opportunity individuation and the shaping of opportunity beliefs," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 252-272.
    8. Dimov, Dimo & Pistrui, Joseph, 2024. "Dynamics of entrepreneurial well-being: Insights from computational theory," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    9. Ramoglou, Stratos & Gartner, William B. & Tsang, Eric W.K., 2020. "“Who is an entrepreneur?” is (still) the wrong question," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 13(C).
    10. Astebro, Thomas B. & Fossen, Frank M. & Gutierrez, Cédric, 2024. "Entrepreneurs: Clueless, Biased, Poor Heuristics, or Bayesian Machines?," IZA Discussion Papers 17231, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Per Davidsson, 2023. "Ditching Discovery-Creation for Unified Venture Creation Research," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 47(2), pages 594-612, March.
    12. Jeffery S. McMullen & Katrina M. Brownell & Joel Adams, 2021. "What Makes an Entrepreneurship Study Entrepreneurial? Toward A Unified Theory of Entrepreneurial Agency," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 45(5), pages 1197-1238, September.
    13. Welter, Chris & Scrimpshire, Alex, 2021. "The missing capital: The case for psychological capital in entrepreneurship research," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 16(C).
    14. Fossen, Frank M. & McLemore, Trevor & Sorgner, Alina, 2024. "Artificial Intelligence and Entrepreneurship," IZA Discussion Papers 17055, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Jiang, Yi Dragon & Straub, Caroline & Klyver, Kim & Mauer, René, 2021. "Unfolding refugee entrepreneurs' opportunity-production process — Patterns and embeddedness," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 36(5).
    16. Sarooghi, Hessam & AdelRastkhiz, Seyedeh Elahe & Hornsby, Jeffrey, 2021. "Heterogeneity of entrepreneurial opportunities as design artifacts: A business model perspective," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 16(C).
    17. Lerner, Daniel A., 2016. "Behavioral disinhibition and nascent venturing: Relevance and initial effects on potential resource providers," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 234-252.
    18. Davidsson, Per, 2022. "McBride and Wuebker's Socially Objective Opportunities: Do they move the field forward?," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 18(C).
    19. Clark, Kim & Ramachandran, Indu, 2019. "Subsidiary Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurial Opportunity: An Institutional Perspective," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 37-50.
    20. Han, Wei & Luo, Yong (Eddie) & Huang, Qihai & Yang, Jun, 2022. "The role of opportunity feasibility beliefs and bribery on resource acquisition speed and new venture emergence," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 518-527.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jobuve:v:21:y:2024:i:c:s2352673424000167. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-business-venturing-insights .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.