Previous research has been inconclusive regarding the impact of those who invest in entrepreneurs. Consider for a moment how potentially important they are to entrepreneurs. They for example decide who deserves funding, how much time they contribute to their portfolio firms, how they grant entrepreneurs access to their networks, and help entrepreneurs acquire additional funding. In sum, investors potentially have a great impact on the success of entrepreneurs. It is therefore important that we better understand the environment, relationships and context in which parties operate. This thesis contains five articles that explore investors’ and entrepreneurs’ relationships from various viewpoints, in theoretical frameworks, and use a variety of data and research methods. The first article is a literature review that summarises what we know of venture capital, business angel and corporate venture capital funding. The second article studies the entrepreneurs’ investor selection process, its consequences, and identifies key factors that influence the process. Earlier, the common approach has been to concentrate research on the investors’ selection policy, not the entrepreneurs’. The data and conclusions are based on multiple case studies. The article analyses how entrepreneurs can ensure that they get the best possible investor, when it is possible for an entrepreneur to select an investor, and what are the consequences of investor selection. The third article employs power constructs (dependency, power balance/imbalance, power sources) and analyses their applicability in the investor-entrepreneur relationship. Power constructs are extensively studied and utilised in the management and organisation literature. In entrepreneur investor relationships, power aspects are rarely analysed. However, having the ability to “get others to do things they would not otherwise do” is a very common factor in the investor-entrepreneur relationship. Therefore, employing and analysing the applicability of power constructs in this setting is well founded. The article is based on a single case study but suggests that power constructs could be applicable and consequently provide additional insights into the investor-entrepreneur relationship. The fourth article studies the role of advisors in the venture capital investment process and analyses implications for research and practice, particularly from the entrepreneurs’ perspective. The common entrepreneurial finance literature describes the entrepreneur-investor relationship as linear and bilateral. However, it was discovered that advisors may influence the relationship. In this article, the role of advisors, operating procedures and advisors’ impact on different parties is analysed. The fifth article concentrates on investors’ certification effect. The article measures and demonstrates that venture capital investment is likely to increase the credibility (in terms of media attention) of early stage firms, those that most often need additional credibility. Understanding investor certification can affect how entrepreneurs evaluate investment offers and how investors can make their offers appear more lucrative.

Unprecedented environmental challenges require new entrepreneurs who develop disruptive ideas, products and services. These entrepreneurs are becoming increasingly dependent on their surrounding context and the other actors situated within this context. Against this background, this research focused on the emergence of bioeconomy entrepreneurial ecosystems in two Finnish regions: Lahti and Tampere, and investigated regional differences in entrepreneurial ecosystem emergence, evolution and legitimacy. This research was based on an iterative process of theory elaboration. Spigel’s relational perspective to entrepreneurial ecosystem attributes was used as the main guiding perspective. An integrative literature review conceptualized and synthesized literature around the topic. A comparative case study design was applied, and case regions were selected based on theoretical relevance. The primary data consisted of 21 interviews which were analyzed using thematic analyses. The results showed contrasting development paths for ecosystem emergence: the Lahti ecosystem was emerging from established and maintained arrangements, whereas the Tampere ecosystem was emerging from change processes; the change seemed to be easiest for those areas within cities that do not suffer from path-dependent arrangements. The findings challenge standard evolutionary models and bottom-up models of entrepreneurial ecosystems. When successful, changing ecosystems could potentially reduce the timespan for ecosystem development. Moreover, different ecosystems had different implications for legitimacy. In conclusion, the public sector and research institutions should play a more prominent role in the development of entrepreneurial ecosystems in the bioeconomy and work towards a more inclusive collaborative process. Nonetheless, the dichotomy between change and path dependence in entrepreneurial ecosystems was based on preliminary categorizations that can be elaborated in further study and broader empirical data.

Aims. Previous research on entrepreneurial education has mainly been driven by economic interest. It has been based on quantitative approaches focusing on learning outcomes. Entrepreneurial competencies have been observed as learnable and teachable, although there has been contradictory evidence about effectiveness of entrepreneurial education. Process perspective on entrepreneurial education has left as a minor viewpoint. By now, researchers’ have recommended socio-constructive and experiential approaches to pedagogics. The objective of this study is to bring together previously separate research traditions on educational outcomes and process, introducing more profound picture of learning entrepreneurial competencies especially from the students’ perspective. Methods. The study was conducted by interviewing 18 fifth-year engineering students, who had started their studies on August 1, 2013. The interview invitations were targeted based on study register data for reaching participants from diverse backgrounds on entrepreneurial studies. The research instrument was built on directions of narrative research, critical incident technique and lifeline approach. The data were analyzed with content analysis combined with abductive reasoning and data quantification. Results and conclusions. Consistently with the previous studies, entrepreneurial competencies were shown possible to learn. All students recognized learning of business competencies. However, competencies needed in early-phase entrepreneurship were emphasized by students, who had accomplished several entrepreneurial courses. Results concerning learning process indicated that combining formal learning environments with elements of informal learning resulted as a wide spectrum of learned entrepreneurial competencies. Learning was located especially in problem-solving and project working environments where students co-worked in inter- or multidisciplinary groups. However, other than entrepreneurial courses did not directly support learning of entrepreneurial competencies. Thus, the findings set base for further actions in integrating the elements of entrepreneurial courses into project courses.

In this working paper I discuss gendered entrepreneurship by exploring how the media writes about female entrepreneurship. The starting point is that the media when talking and writing about female entrepreneurs and female entrepreneurship, mould meanings of gender in entrepreneurship. I view entrepreneurship and gender as socially constructed, discursive phenomena. To uncover the processes of constructing gender in female entrepreneurship this paper applies a discursive framework, which treats language as a representational system producing and circulating meaning. The focus on language use as action implies that practises of writing and talking about female entrepreneurship ‘make’ gender as much as the women entrepreneurs) themselves: both involve working on culturally shared meanings to make reality intelligible. The data consists of articles published in Yrittäjä, a pro-SME magazine, in 1990-1997. In the analysis I show how gender is constructed in media talk. as a women’s issue Women entrepreneurs are constantly compared with men and with an implicitly masculine ideal of entrepreneurship and with strengths and weaknesses of women are displayed pointing out that the meaning making of gender taking place in the data refers to equality discourse. Finally I discuss possible consequences of the hegemonic equality discourse and suggest lines of further research.

Exploration and exploitation complement one another in the organizational learning. Exploration fosters the ability to diversify, while exploitation increases specialization. Together, these two modes promote innovation and subsequent organizational renewal. While exploration facilitates the discovery of new knowledge, exploitation merges this knowledge with previously held knowledge and skills to expand and strengthen the firm. The current scientific literature falls short in explaining in practical terms how this fusion takes place, produces innovations, and renews the strategy of an organization. By leveraging an intimate relationship with the innovation activities of a large-scale multinational enterprise, Laukkanen created an Integrated Process Model of the interplay between ambidextrous innovation activities and the strategy and structure development of a company. The Integrated Process Model highlights the conversion between exploration and exploitation as the central mechanism for establishing a dialogue that fosters reciprocal adjustment between the innovation activity, strategy and structure of the firm. The study identified three conversion patterns that bring the discoveries from the exploration mode to the commercial realm. In the ‘linear’ pattern, the innovation activities execute the fine-grained strategy with the established structure of the company. The linear innovation activities produce incremental innovations that sustain the strategy of the firm. In the ‘transforming’ pattern, an iterative conversion process facilitates concurrent reciprocal adjustments in the innovation activity and strategy and structure of the firm. The adjustments of the strategy and structure are necessary for radical innovations. In the ‘experimenting’ conversion pattern, the activity is intermittently connected to the strategy and structure development of the company. The intermittent connection provides the experimenting activity with the latitude to craft new business entries outside the traditional domain of the company. The intermittent connection between the innovation activity and strategy and structure implies that the strategic learning takes place primarily in retrospect to the experiment. The research illuminated ambidexterity as an eclectic organizational learning phenomenon that cuts through the fabric of an organization. The study captured the ambidexterity phenomenon on three ‘presentation layers’. Ambidexterity was identified both in actions and in their concrete outcomes, i.e. innovations. Additionally, ambidexterity left observable traces on the realized strategy of the firm. Each presentation layer of ambidexterity needs to be managed on its own. However, the study argues that the most decisive factor in making ambidexterity productive is the purposefulness of the continuum across these presentation layers. The three identified innovation patterns represent alternative paths from ambidextrous activities to their eventual outcomes. The Integrated Process Model of ambidexterity provides a conceptualization for actualizing ambidexterity to the strategic benefit of a company. This study provides guidance for firms seeking to promote ambidextrous activities for innovations and organizational renewal.

In the study the present is mirrored to the past in the Russian economy with focus on similarities in the fields of investment/capital, knowledge/technology and entrepreneurship. The periods were 1894 to 1914 and 2000 to 2020. The fields appeared as central factors in programs for economic modernization in 1890s and the 2000s. It was assumed, that there would be major similarities in the studied areas in the two periods. The hypothesis was tested by applying roughly the hypothetico-deductive method while utilizing freely the theories of Anthony Giddens. The material consisted primarily of secondary sources. Major similarities in investments were the primacy of defence and the transport sector, pipelines in the 2000s and before 1914 railways. Both served the export of raw materials, grain respective hydrocarbons. The incomes from these main export products were largely invested into the transport sector and the defence of the huge territory. The state remained the main actor steering largely investments in a way that increased the defence capability of the country, the railways having a military function. In both periods a strict monetary policy was conducted. In the field of knowledge, the structures favoured creation of theoretical knowledge but not of innovations. While private entrepreneurship remained important, the state became the main actor in the economy promoting modernization. In the earlier period it implemented an economic program whose main factors were the building of railways, attracting foreign investments and maintaining high custom barriers. In the 2000s the lack of one single program was compensated by the generally greater role of the state, state companies and the huge state-owned defence industry. The custom barriers were initially lowered, but in the 2010s the policy of import substitution and devaluation of the rouble brought similarities to the former system. In both periods the wealth and military power of the country grew from the initial level. Yet the results were far from the ambitious goals set. The systems remained monopolistic, relatively inefficient and disinterested of inventions, with corruption, bribery and dishonest business practices. The border between state and private sectors was blurred. Subsidies provided mainly by the export of raw materials bolstered the systems. These features could be seen as obstacles for economic modernization. To verify whether they all are would require including more theory of economic modernization. Both in good and bad, the structures of the two periods seem so much alike even on a detailed level, that one could suspect partial imitation of the past in the 2000s. The similarities could as well be due to long-term structures of Russia, be they cultural, institutional, geographical or geopolitical. They could result either from direct continuities from earlier periods or features that re-emerge due to a change of conditions. Mentions of similar traits in other periods of the Russian history might indicate the predominance of structural causes, making quick changes difficult. A more plausible explanation would require the widening of the study to include more countries and time periods.

This paper examines the question of when employees become entrepreneurs from an economic theory perspective. It focuses on new company formation as a decision between spin-out, spin-off or internal venture, especially from employee's point of view. It addresses the question of how pre-entry organizational structures and availability of outside financing influence both employee and company decisions, taking into account the fundamental questions of when employees generate innovations, how companies react to them, and whether they are eventually developed inside or outside the company. The starting point is the situation when an employee has a new business idea while working in a company as an employee. It is also assumed that the idea or innovation is out side employer company's core business. The question is, under what circumstances does the employee start a new business. Intellectual property right regime influences the outcome, but not so that it pre-determines the outcome. This paper will be based mainly on the work of Klepper, Anton, Yao and Hellman. Anton and Yao's (1995) and Klepper's (2001) work form a base for the economical approach on the formation of spin-outs and spin-offs. Anton and Yao's work focuses on inventions that don't require much start up capital and for which property rights are very weak or missing all together. In such settings, the employee will sometimes form a new company even though joint profits would have been larger had the invention been developed with the original company. They study the incentives faced by an employer and an employee when the employee privately discovers a significant invention. Most of the definitions of new entrants and employee motivations in this thesis are adaptations of Klepper's previous work. Besides the work of Anton and Yao, this thesis is based on Hellman's model on new company formation (Hellman, 2001). Hellman has combined different approaches in his paper, by forming a model that is based on four main elements: Alternative regimes of intellectual property rights, differences in the entrepreneurial environment, endogenous corporate strategy and employee-driven innovations. The model aims to explain why some companies let their employees go, others develop their innovations internally, turning employees into entrepreneurs, while some use their employees' innovations to create spin-offs Hellman (2002). Helman's paper differs from most of the other previous work in that it considers a larger set of development alternatives, explaining spin-outs (voluntary or not, with or without intellectual property rights), internal ventures, spin-offs, and even refusals to develop an innovation. The analysis does not rely on incomplete contracts, but instead uses a multi-task incentive framework to characterize the employee's incentive problem. Most importantly, Hellman's paper introduces corporate strategy into the analysis. This approach builds on the work by Rotemberg and Saloner (1994), who examine the benefits of narrow business strategy. Some other aspects of spin-off and spin-out motives are visited briefly in this paper.

Viimeaikainen sukupuolta ja organisaatiota käsittelevä tutkimus ja kirjallisuus on saanut paljon (toisinaan epäsuoria) vaikutteita feminismiä ympäröivistä keskusteluista. Lisäksi naisten aseman ja kokemuksien tunnistaminen organisaatioissa ja johtamisessa on vaikuttanut tutkimukseen. Erilaisten kansainvälisesti tutkittujen aiheiden kirjo on laaja: sukupuolisuhteet organisaatioiden ja johtoryhmien kulttuureissa ja kommunikaatiossa; sukupuolittunut työnjako; sukupuolittuneet hierarkiat, valta, auktoriteetti ja johtajuus organisaatioissa ja johtamisessa; sukupuolittuneet markkinat; sukupuolittuneet kuvat, symbolit ja mainokset; sukupuoli ja IT teknologia; seksuaalisuus, häirintä, kiusaaminen ja väkivalta organisaatioissa; työn ja kodin yhteensovittaminen; ja niin edelleen. Myös akateemiset organisaatiot sekä niiden sukupuolittuneet valtasuhteet ja johtaminen kaipaavat kipeästi huomiota. Useimpia mainituista alueista on tutkittu ainakin jonkin verran mutta paljon työtä on vielä myös jäljellä. Tämä kokoelma esittelee ajankohtaista suomalaista tutkimusta seuraavista teemoista: tasa-arvo organisaatioissa, naisjohtajuus, yrittäjyyden sukupuoli, verkostot, sukupuolen representaatio sekä sukupuoli ja uusi teknologia. Kokoelma on työryhmän yhdessä koostama joten se on ennen kaikkea yhteistyön tulos. Recent research and literature on the gendering of organisations has been strongly influenced, though sometimes indirectly, by debates in and around feminism, and on recognising women and women’s situations, experiences and voices in organisations and management. The range of topics and issues that have been studied internationally is vast: gender relations in organizational and management groups, cultures and communication; gender divisions of labour; gender divisions of hierarchy, power, authority and leadership in organizations and management; gendered markets; gender imagery, symbols and advertising; gender and information technology; sexuality, harassment, bullying and violence in organisations; home-work relations; and so on. There are also key issues of gender power relations in academic organizations and management themselves, which need urgent attention. Though most of these areas have been researched to some extent, much remains to be done. This collection brings together current Finnish research on: Equality in Organisations, Women in Management, Gender and Entrepreneurship, Networks, Representation of Gender, Gender and ICTs. The book has been put together by an editorial team and is thus first and foremost a collective effort.

Aims. The purpose of this study is to describe how entrepreneurial women with children experience parenting. The theoretical background is based on the parenting role map (Helminen and Iso-Heiniemi, 1999), as well as the cultural aspects of motherhood (Berg, 2008). The point of view regarding entrepreneurship and parenting coordination is derived from a model (Salmi 2004c) with work and family, as the point where three fields intersect. The fields consist of working life and politics, family life and social policy, as well as the constructive processes of gender and equality politics. Experiences of parenting by self-employed women examined three broad thematic areas: parenting experience, entrepreneurship and parenting coordination, and parenting and entrepreneurship, as positioned in the careers of the interviewees. The main research questions are: 1. How is parenting experienced in the everyday life by female entrepreneurs with children? 2. What types of coping strategies and solutions have women entrepreneurs created to coordinate entrepreneurship and parenting? 3. How have parenthood and entrepreneurship positioned themselves in the life cycle of women entrepreneurs? Methods. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews involving eight 30 to 55-year-old female entrepreneurs in the Uusimaa region. In addition to the interview, the subjects produced their own life stories, where they recorded the important stages of family life and entrepreneurship. The data were analysed using content analysis. The experiences of self employed women were approached through phenomenological understanding without attempting to remove them from the general social context. Results and conclusions. The parenthood of self employed women parentage was purely gender based and expressed as maternity in their daily lives. The role of maternity appeared in their everyday care of children, household tasks, and basic needs. Closeness and presence were also strong factors. A safety net involving the grandparents was present. Also, use of time and bringing the child to the work were functions of the coordination solutions. The life stories of female entrepreneurs appeared as individual stories, with maternity as the common denominator. The use of time included exceptional creativity and resourcefulness in addressing the needs of the family. The way female entrepreneurs schedule their time in everyday life provides an interesting perspective in the discussion regarding coordination of work and family.

This is an explorative case study on the transformations of the hegemonic self and the subaltern other in the spaces of Israel’s globalising economy. Inspired by the works of Saskia Sassen, the thesis is based on a premise that the modern binary categories of difference may transform in the spaces of global, destabilising the hegemonic state. To study this possibility, thesis collects individual imaginaries of difference from Israel where the state has started to integrate the Palestinians of Israel into the centre of Israel’s start-up economy and the key operations of global capital. The thesis deploys an innovative research design that approaches difference as imaginary, made in the living interaction of materialities, myths and creative sense-making. The data of the study consists of individual narrations of difference, collected from Israeli-Palestinian entrepreneurs and Jewish public officials who work together at the entrepreneurial spaces in Israel. The findings of the thesis demonstrate that the Palestinians of Israel who are included into the entrepreneurial space, seek to reject their Palestinian identity and past in order to escape from the national hegemonic conditions. Through analysing the sense-making of Israeli Palestinians, the thesis demonstrates that the entrepreneurial space systematically expels knowledges of otherness that do not fit into the binary logic of modernity. The thesis concludes that in essence, the entrepreneurial intervention is a tool for reproducing the modern emancipatory image of self through the inclusion of the other. At the entrepreneurial site, it is not fear but the hope of emancipation that motivates Palestinians of Israel to detach from Palestinian narratives and spaces. Zionism, it seems, is able to re-institute its binary categories of difference from within the hope that the global brings. The results of the thesis help to understand the hegemonic dynamics through which Zionism and global capital expand together into subaltern consciousness and spaces of political As imaginaries of entrepreneurial knowledge economy are expanding not just in Israel but throughout the globe, the findings of the thesis may open up analytical possibilities also elsewhere.