Stuck in the playground: a (failed) organizational entrepreneuring process

Abstract

Collaborative spaces such as fab labs, incubators, and coworking spaces have become a worldwide phenomenon based on their promise of fostering creativity and entrepreneurship. Mature, large organizations have also tried to benefit from this by creating such spaces in-house. This paper studies a failed attempt to create one such space in a large bureaucratic organization. Our study shows that succeeding in actualizing a space for play, creativity, and entrepreneurship in the place of the office requires attention to organizational ‘common sense’. With our process perspective and its upgrading of the role of affect, our study’s contributions highlight (1) The potential for research in organizational entrepreneurship of an affect-based conceptualization of common sense, which also emphasizes the political, in understanding the failure of entrepreneuring, and (2) The importance of ‘spacing’ and the space-place dynamics for entrepreneuring in organizations.

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