[Research Seminar] INENT: “Practices and the propensity of things: Explaining “Luck” in entrepreneurial action” Y. DRAGON JIANG – ESCP Business School
Speaker: Yi DRAGON JIANG
ESCP Business School
Date and Location – Tuesday September 12th 2023 from 12:00 to 13:30
in Paris campus (P400) and on Zoom
—————————————–
ABSTRACT
The notion of “luck” has been invoked to explain individual or organizational success in entrepreneurship studies. Although scholars mostly view luck as something random that happens beyond our control and intention, human wisdom, as put wisely by the Roman philosopher Seneca, suggests that “luck is simply preparedness meeting opportunity”. In this paper, we combine analytical strategies to examine inductively and theorize how “making our own luck” is possible. The results reveal three possible sequences, formed by five conditions coalescing and emerging overtime towards the happening of luck. We show the importance of considering variations in logics of action as in addition to the widely-accepted cognitivist “means-ends” logic. By considering two alternative logics of explanation, that of “practices” and “situation”, we explain actions and outcomes in terms that accommodate the possibility of “making our own luck”.