E-Entrepreneurship Strategies to Overcome Barriers to Market Entry - a System Theory and Cybernetics Perspective

This study offers an interpretation of the barriersto e-entrepreneurship posed by the TIME industry (Telecommunications, IT,Media, and Entertainment). As a sub-system of the TIME industry,e-entrepreneurship faces considerable challenges from both market entry andexit barriers. Using a methodology derived from cybernetics and system theory,the authors propose to interpret these barriers, indicating strategies fore-enterprises. The main entry barrier faced by an e-entrepreneur is the need toinfluence the gradient of complexity between the market and the entrepreneurialorganization. The analysis yields a number of strategies from system theory andcybernetics that the authors apply to the commercial context: (1) insulationfrom, enlargement of, and governing of complexity; and (2) how to build amulti-stable system (internal and external differentiation of the system andconfiguration of the system by means of loose links). The findings suggest thatan e-enterprise can succeed in influencing the gradient of complexity byadapting the convergence complexity in three dimensions: (1) the objectivestructure-related, (2) the objective process-related, and (3) the subjectiveprocess-related. Recommendations are made for the e-entrepreneur to develop amulti-stable organization with capabilities for facilitating adaptive behavior.(CBS)