Entrepreneurial Roles Along a Cycle of Discovery

Abstract

The literature on entrepreneurship recognizes a variety of entrepreneurial roles, and the question arises what roles are played when and by whom.In this article, roles are attributed to different stages of innovation and organizational development.A central theme is the relation between discontinuity, in radical innovation (exploration), and continuity, in application, diffusion and adaptation (exploitation).Use is made of a concept of a 'cycle of discovery', which seeks to explain how exploration leads on to exploitation, and how exploitation may yield exploration, in a step-by-step development towards radical innovation.Parallel to this there are processes of organisational development.