Title: The illusions of entrepreneurs: the problems in 'here I stand' strategies during the service design processes

Authors: Samuel Ahola; Katja Lindholm; Rauno Rusko

Addresses: Faculty of Art and Design, University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, Finland ' Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, Finland ' Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, Finland

Abstract: Relentlessness is known to be one of the sources of entrepreneurship. A service design case study from Finland shows the problems beyond the relentlessness of entrepreneurship in small and micro enterprises. To be robust, the relentlessness 'here I stand' strategy also demands selective flexibility. Entrepreneurship school, for example, is based on the entrepreneur's vision and intuition. These visions and intuitions, however, might be part of the illusions of entrepreneurship, where relentlessness is only 'here I stand strategy' without willingness to take reactive or proactive steps in the firm's strategies. The case study, which emphasises service design methods, reveals this kind of entrepreneurial 'design fixation' to be among the main problems entrepreneurs face in strategy work.

Keywords: service design process; small business; enterprises: entrepreneurs; here I stand strategy.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBG.2022.122667

International Journal of Business and Globalisation, 2022 Vol.30 No.2, pp.246 - 261

Received: 17 Apr 2019
Accepted: 08 Jul 2019
Published online: 05 May 2022 *

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