Research

My research focuses on entrepreneurship and small business strategy in an international context. In particular, I am interested in how new ventures emerge, in strategies which small firms can apply to compete with larger rivals, and in entrepreneurial practices and approaches in a digitalised context. Cooperations, learning, and strategic alliances hereby play an essential role in my investigations.

Beside these discipline-dependent topics, I am working on exploratory research questions regarding the philosophy/sociology of science, e.g., questionable research practices such as−for example−p-hacking, on basic philosophical assumptions−e.g., equifinality vs. linearity underlying theory crafting−or questions regarding the role of causality in our research programmes.

Below, I have outlined four research topics I am currently working on.

HOW DO NEW VENTURES EMERGE, WHY DO THEY LAST, AND WHAT IMPLICATIONS DO THEY HAVE FOR ESTABLISHED FIRMS?

My research focuses on outliers in entrepreneurship, which are founders who are markedly different and can be disproportionately influential relative to the population. Using subjectivist theory, I aim to understand why and how they might see the world differently, recognising opportunities that otherwise are overseen.

Linked to this focus is glorification of successful entrepreneurs. We tend to present entrepreneurial success biased by overemphasising heroic entrepreneurial acts. This has some far-reaching ethical implications. This dual performativity of heroic narratives of entrepreneurship implies that glorification of entrepreneur(ship) has the potential to both enhance (in terms of collective welfare) and destroy (in terms of entrepreneurial failures) lives of people in a society through the mediating effects of inflated entrepreneurial activity and (un)productive entrepreneurship.

Finally, I am focusing on start-up strategies and different ways founders discovered to get their business of the ground.

Exemplary papers in this line of research are:

Linder, Christian, Christian Lechner, and Frank Pelzel. 2020. “Many roads lead to Rome: How human, social, and financial capital are related to new venture survival.” Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, 44(5): 909–932.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1042258719867558

Linder, Christian. 2019. “Customer orientation and operations: The role of manufacturing capabilities in small- and medium-sized enterprises.” International Journal of Production Economics, 216(1): 105–117.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2019.04.030

WHICH STRATEGIC OPPORTUNITIES ARISE FROM TRANSFORMING A CLASSICAL BUSINESS MODEL INTO A DIGITAL ONE?

For most businesses, digital transformation tastes bitter-sweet as it promises infinite opportunities and enormous growth potential but by demanding change and adaptation, it threatens hard-earned past competitive advantages. My research focuses on change and transformation and which strategic opportunities for business emerge from digital business models.

A further focus is on family business as for family-owned firms, digitalisation is a twofold transformation; one that concerns the transition from classical to new digital business models, and one that is concerned with a new relation between the family and the firm.

Exemplary papers in this line of research are:

Rauch, Erwin, Patrick Dallasega, and Christian Linder. 2019. “Anthropocentric perspective of production before and within Industry 4.0.” Computers & Industrial Engineering, 130: 105644.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cie.2019.01.018

Dallasega, Patrick, Erwin Rauch, and Christian Linder. 2018. “Industry 4.0 as an enabler of proximity for construction supply chains.” Computers in Industry, 99(2): 205–225.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compind.2018.03.039

WHAT ARE THE PATTERNS HINDERING OR FACILITATING DIVERSITY IN ORGANISATIONS?

My research on this topic is mostly concerned with how different groups make decisions on their start-up strategies given the fact that specific hurdles exist in their social environment. I am, for instance, interested in the normative force of the factual as it creates normative implications due to factual realities. These realities emerge from common practices, i.e., being empirical, but transition to normative standards which can have severe implications.

Another research interest is in socio-cognitive categories, prototypes' goal-based categorical evaluations, and optimal distinctiveness. Specifically, audiences' regular disapproval of categorical ambiguity, how and this could open-up new categories and what this means for transformation, e.g., in a more sustainable development, is a further topic of interest to me.

Exemplary papers in this line of research are:

Sperber, Sonja, and Christian Linder. 2022. “Gender bias in IT entrepreneurship: The self-referential role of male overrepresentation in digital businesses.” European Journal of Information Systems. (online first)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0960085X.2022.2075801

Sperber, Sonja, and Christian Linder. 2018. “Gender-specifics in start-up strategies and the role of the entrepreneurial ecosystem.” Small Business Economics, 53(2): 533–546.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-018-9999-2

Media coverage

Newspaper | KRONEN ZEITUNG | German language | LINK

Podcast | DEDEKTOR | German language | LINK

Blog | LBS REVIEW | English language | LINK

Magazine | FRANKFURT LIVE | German language | LINK

Newspaper | DER STANDARD | German language | LINK

Newspaper | SALZBURGER NACHRICHTEN | German language | LINK

Business News Chanelle | LEADERSNET | German language | LINK

Magazine | FUND SCENE | German language | LINK

WHAT ARE THE PHILOSOPHICAL/SOCIOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES ON WHICH WE (IDEALLY OR PRACTICALLY) BUILD OUR ACADEMIC KNOWLEDGE IN MANAGEMENT?

My research in the domain of production of academic management knowledge focuses on how we discover new business phenomena and the way we theorise on these discoveries. This includes, for example, the role of causality in our discoveries or the way how we assume causal mechanisms based on relations that we observe. A further research interest centres on the practices our field has develop, how and why we cultivate them and what implications these practices have on our management theories.

A rather new focus is on aesthetics in management theories. Management studies commonly have an epistemic aim such as truth or understanding. But management theories are also artefacts of an individual researcher (or small groups of researchers). As such, theories have a shape and a form which follows epistemic but aesthetical principles. I am interested in these principles as they shape how we recognise, comprehend, structure, and order the entities of our social world and construct the phenomena of our scholarly interest.

Exemplary papers in this line of research are:

Linder, Christian, Abhisekh Ghosh Moulick, and Christian Lechner. 2022. “Necessary Conditions and Theory-Method Compatibility in Quantitative Entrepreneurship Research.” Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice. (online first)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/10422587221102103

Linder, Christian, and Siavash Farahbakhsh. 2020. “Unfolding the Black Box of questionable research practices: Where is the line between acceptable and unacceptable practices?” Business Ethics Quarterly, 30(3): 335–360. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/beq.2019.52