Drawing the ostensive globally, creatively enacting locally: Dispersed knowledge & routines creation

Abstract

Routines are essential to structure a new venture; however, we know little about how entrepreneurs develop new patterns of action in entrepreneurial settings where they cannot count on routine transfer and prior industry knowledge. In such contexts, entrepreneurs must draw from pools of knowledge to shape ostensive prescriptions and performance enactment. How do entrepreneurs interact with different knowledge sources to assemble the routines of a new venture? This paper conducts a qualitative analysis of the process of routine formation in four coffee ventures launched autonomously by entrepreneurs with no prior industry experience. The analysis connects the process of routines formation to the micro-dynamics that shaped the entrepreneurs' interaction with global and local knowledge. The study leverages insights from the study of global knowledge creation to highlight the mechanisms through which the entrepreneurs extracted ostensive components from global knowledge prescriptions and enacted them through performances modulated by local creative instances.