How Innovation and Entrepreneurship Can Conquer Uncertainty and Complexity: Learning About the Unexpected

Abstract

In recent times, it has become obvious that linear models of the world in general and management in particular do not carry as far as we expected them to. However, the question of how we can find a clue how to deal with a world that is a complex aggregation of evolving interactions is still unanswered. Much of what was seen as real, machine-like, determined and objective seems to be unpredictable, indefinable and subjective since the middle of the last century. The knowledge required for identifying the best alternative is beyond the possibilities of actors. Thus dealing with uncertainty, complexity and the search for novelty are becoming increasingly important. Strategic management science provides a suitable tool for constructing aisles of knowledge into the forest of uncertainty: strategic planning. We argue that one possible key to make the future manageable despite its overwhelming complexity might be to typify future developments based on experiences form past and present. In this way, economic actors may drive corridors of future development into the unknown dark of the future.

Keywords: Learning, complexity, uncertainty, strategic entrepreneurship, strategic planning, small business, SME, new ventures