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A life cycle theory typically starts with the assumptions of birth, growth, maturity and decline. Life cycle theories are borrowed from biology where life cycles of flora and fauna are studied extensively. Thus, perhaps it is ok to think of this borrowing as a kind of analogy--imperfect, but potentially interesting. By definition a life has a beginning and an end, which provides initial boundary conditions for the theory. What happens in between, or those inner-transitions, are where we are going to find most of the action in terms of debate. Because of its close relationship to stage based theories , we will defer your attention there for further information. Other biological theories that might interest you: Birth order theory of entrepreneurship Brain parasite theory of entrepreneurship Genetic theory of entrepreneurship The Great Man theory of entrepreneurship

Cognitive evaluation theory is a theory in psychology (part of self-determination theory) where it has been used to explain how external factors affect an individuals intrinsic or internal motivation. Events that increase (decrease) perceived confidence increase (decrease) intrinsic motivation. Keh et al. (2002) borrow the theory to conduct a study of entrepreneurs and find that: "illusion of control and belief in the law of small numbers are related to how entrepreneurs evaluate opportunities." These authors propose that individuals that perceive a lower level of risk associated with an opportunity are more likely to judge it positively. Entrepreneurs exhibiting an illusion of control , will have higher overconfidence and will perceive less risk. This is related to the hubris theory of entrepreneurship . Another finding is that entrepreneurs with stronger beliefs in " the law of small numbers " perceive lower risks. The law of small numbers refers to the fallacy t...

Utility theory  was developed by moral philosophers in the early 1900s, including  John Stuart Mill . The core concept is that individuals make (or should make) decisions that maximize utility. Utility includes value for one's self and for others (society). Mill's book Utilitarianism sets forth several principles and argues that happiness is has utility, as does justice. All sentient beings can experience utility, thus maximizing utility can take into account the interests of animals. But it brings forth a debate about how much utility to give to a deer versus a driver in the decision to construct an expensive nature fence and land bridge. Moreover, there might be "more sentient" beings, such as gifted humans, which some might want to give a higher utility in their calculations. Another problem is that we might give little weight to things that affect many people but only a little bit. For example, if one may litter and affect many people (who will see the trash), but...

The weak ties theory was put forth by Mark Granovetter in 1969 as a theory that explains why some people seem to access to more and better opportunities than others. He conducted a study of around 200 people who had just gotten new jobs and asked them how they got their jobs and most of them, around 75% had got them from acquaintances. The rate was even higher for the higher income earners in his sample. The core idea is that weak ties are more important than strong ties in terms of providing you with novel and actionable information. Close ties refer to individuals that we interact with on a nearly constant basis, such as roommates, nuclear family members and a few good friends. Close ties provide very little new information because most of the individuals within the clique of a close tie network share many of the same relations. Weak ties refer to social connections to individuals who are not closely related. Rather, weak ties may be part of disparate networks. These weak ties form ...

In ecology , a niche refers to a space with specific necessary environmental conditions that may guide the evolution and existance of species (Hardesty, 1972). This is closely related to the concept of convergent evolution , where two or more species develop similar adaptations because they occupy similar evolutionary niches. For example, the marsupial wolf is adapted to forests, plains and prays on other mammal herbivores, just like the placental wolf. In entrepreneurship lingo, a niche refers to a narrow market space.  Hutchinson (1978) suggests that much like animal species, competitors rarely occupy the same niche because if they do then they compete directly and would result in frequent fights. Rather, each species tends to specialize, for instance, one might evolve to prey at night, while the other preys during the day. Similarly, businesses can cater to distinct customer segments by offering differentiated products and services. The theory of population ecology is used to e...

The entrepreneurial process is often conceptualized as stage-based. In ecology and biology, there are stages of development or decay present in many phenomena. The description, explanation and prediction of cycles is one of the mainstays of the hard sciences. Kazanjian and  Drazin (1990) suggest four stages to explain the how an entrepreneurial opportunity becomes a business.  They propose that the drivers and resisters of entrepreneurship are different at each stage of venture development. Probably only the first stage or two is really about entrepreneurship, whereas growth and stability are really managerial issues after a certain point.  conception and development commercialization  growth stability Bhave (1994) put forward four stages.  In this case, the transitions where ordered but one can easily imagine cases where these stages overlap temporally or are happening simultaneously. While the stages proposed by each theory do not perfectly line up, there...

“The crossing or hybridizations of the media release great new  force and energy a s by fission or fusion…” (1964:48).  Marshall McLuhan was a Canadian academic and celebrity who famously coined the phrase “ the medium is the message ” back in the 1960s to express his thesis about the effect of new technologies on culture and society. At a time when critics railed against sex, violence, and blasphemy on vacuum tube televisions, McLuhan claimed that the content of television was irrelevant, as it is the medium of television that really changes us by creating new audio/visual tribes, and seating us passively in front of the tube. New environments! The implication of McLuhan’s theory was that new technologies shape environments and perceptions, by making accessible new dimensions of time and space. He gave the example of the light bulb, which is a medium devoid of any content (or message), yet it creates an environment by its mere presence, illuminating the dark, extending our a...