Séminaire « Entreprises, Responsabilités et Civilisations »
La Chaire Théorie de l’Entreprise a le plaisir de vous inviter à la prochaine séance du séminaire « Entreprises, Responsabilités et Civilisations »
le 11 décembre 2025
de 16h à 18h00
(version hybride)
Taming Unicorns: Toward a New Normal of Responsible Entrepreneurship
with Matthew Grimes
à
Mines Paris – PSL
60 Boulevard Saint Michel, 75006 PARIS
Abstract:
While entrepreneurial disruption has proven a source of abundance by way of reforming markets and legacy institutions, it is also frequently characterized by the displacement of existing professions, industries, and livelihoods among other societal and ecological externalities. Prior research has often assumed that such reform and externalities are inevitable and inseparable aspects of entrepreneurial disruption. In this presentation, however, I will discuss the institutional foundations which have led to the current configuration of the field of startup activity and the global emphasis on “unicorn startups.” I will subsequently highlight how these institutions might be reoriented toward a “new normal” focused on responsible venture creation, wherein the reformative aspects of disruption are prioritized while negative externalities are controlled. In doing so, the discussion will illustrate interdependencies likely to both resist and emerge from such a transition toward responsible entrepreneurship, while proposing a process of societal-level governance reform needed to address those tensions. The resulting conceptual model contributes to the emerging literature on responsible governance of innovation by shifting the focus toward the systems change needed to overcome institutional-level constraints and transition toward a responsible entrepreneurship ideology. In so doing I also challenge prior theoretical conceptualizations regarding the relationship between disruption and entrepreneurship.
Professor Grimes is a member of the Organisational Theory and Information Systems subject group at Cambridge Judge Business School, Academic Co-Director of the Cambridge Judge Entrepreneurship Centre, and current Deputy Editor at the Academy of Management Journal (formerly Associate Editor). His research interests include entrepreneurship and sustainable development. He examines how individuals and organizations create, introduce, and sustain positive social change by way of entrepreneurship by studying both the contextual and individual factors that contribute to innovation and the governance of innovation
|
|