Phronesis and enactive research from the movie industry: an exploration of entrepreneuring as practice

Abstract

The principle purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of employing enactive research as a research method within the context of entrepreneurship studies. A case, for getting involved in the research, is built by presenting the advantage of being an entresearcher (Johannisson, 2018, p. 5) who combines the roles of a researcher and entrepreneur thereby combining scholarship and practice resulting in better understanding of the entrepreneurial process. The secondary purpose is to build on the concepts of phronesis (Flyvbjerg, 2001) within the domain of entrepreneurship by presenting that in the movie industry the long-term impact of practical wisdom propagated by phronesis is pertinent. Therefore, emphasizing that phronesis is essential for an entrepreneur to deal with adverse or favourable circumstances and this knowledge far outweighs the theoretical knowledge and theory that entrepreneur may possess. This qualitative research paper employs the methodology of enactive research. Set in the context of the movie industry, two case studies are presented and phronesis identified from both the case studies is analysed. In this enactive research, the researcher alone was responsible for the enactment of the two ventures illustrated and for both the financial outcome and the scientific outcome. Taking a cue from Gartner et al. (1992) enactment in these two cases was about acting first and thinking second. The researcher in both the cases operated in a possessive as well as an immersive mode by just taking charge and then submitting to the established structure of production as he was new and did not have experience to challenge the status quo. From these two cases is was concluded that in the movie industry phronesis of long-term credibility is essential for continuing the entrepreneurial process. The general context of creative arts industry and the specific context of movie industry has not been explored earlier and the complexity of this industry with the debate between commerce and art challenges the established conventions of research. Therefore insightful research employing an enactive method offers a new perspective. It is pointed out that entrepreneuring is a practice that takes up a phronesis approach of adjusting and adapting to the environment that is constantly changing rather than working with a rigid strategy.