Entrepreneurial imagining: How a small team of arts entrepreneurs created the world’s largest traveling carillon
Date
2021
Authors
Elias, Sara R. S. T. A.
Chiles, Todd H.
Crawford, Brett
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Organization Studies
Abstract
Although imagination has been recognized as essential to entrepreneuring, the processes by which
entrepreneurs imagine and generate novelty remain insufficiently understood. To begin addressing this
oversight, we propose a rhizomatic process model of entrepreneurial imagining that comprises five elements: experiencing, early creating, reaching an impasse and gestating, (re)creating and evaluating imagined futures, and choosing and enterprising. To generate this dynamic process model, we undertook an abductive, 25-month case study, guided by enactive research, to investigate how a small team of arts entrepreneurs created the world’s largest traveling carillon. Our primary contribution is to offer new theoretical insights into entrepreneurial imagining as a complex, situated, relational performance that unfolds through conscious and unconscious, self-reflective and embodied processes.
Description
We thank our research participants Ana Elias and Alberto Elias for their inventive imaginings. This article is dedicated to them and to Maria Celeste Traquina, who tirelessly works behind the scenes of this study’s arts venture. We also appreciate the insightful comments provided on earlier drafts by Michael Diamond, Dan Greening, and Chris Robert, as well as the participants of the 6th Biennial Qualitative Research in Management and Organization Conference and the 3rd Annual Entrepreneurship as Practice Conference. Lastly, we are sincerely grateful to our Editors Daniel Hjorth and Trish Reay, as well as three incredibly constructive reviewers, for their encouragement and thoughtful guidance throughout the review process.
Keywords
arts entrepreneurs, enactive research, entrepreneuring, imagining, organizing, rhizome
Citation
Elias, S. R. S. T. A., Chiles, T. H., & Crawford, B. (2021). Entrepreneurial imagining: How a small team of arts entrepreneurs created the world’s largest traveling carillon. Organization Studies, 00(0), 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1177/01708406211035501