Portrait of a Research Pioneer: Andrew Van de Ven

• Date: 01 December 2016
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/sej.1235
• Author: Shaker A. Zahra
• Published date: 01 December 2016

PORTRAIT OF A RESEARCH PIONEER: ANDREW VAN

DE VEN

SHAKER A. ZAHRA*

Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota,

U.S.A.

Research Summary: This article reviews the contributions of Andrew Van de Ven, a

pioneer in the study of innovation, entrepreneurship, and corporate venturing. It

articulates key themes in and findings from his research as well as the methodological

and theoretical advances that he has introduced, shaping the development of the field.

Embracinga broad view of entrepreneurship, hisresearch has alsofundamentally altered

our understanding of the nature and processes of innovation and its implications for

organizational learning, new business creation, and improved competitiveness. Van de

Ven ’s fieldwork and engaged scholarship have made his findings powerful, rigorous,

and relevant. The article also highlights the implications of Van de Ven’sbodyofwork

for future research.

Managerial Summary: Professor Andrew Van de Ven is a true pioneer in the processes

involved in the conception, introduction, evaluation, adoption, and institutionalization

of innovations in established companies. His seminal work highlights key challenges

managers encounter in each of these stages, offering rich insights into the causes and

consequences of these issues while suggesting important solutions to them. Van de Ven’s

work has also advanced novel ways of studying and tracking innovations over time. It

has also explored the close link between innovation and corporate venturing activities,

which are vital to organizational renewal and growth. Van de Ven’s findings about the

dynamics of organizational change and learning have altered our notions of

organizational evolution and transformation. Copyright © 2016 Strategic Management

Society.

INTRODUCTION

Over the course of his 44-yearcareer, Andrew Van de

Ven has been a towering figure in the study of

innovation and corporate venturing. I came across

his work while I was a Ph.D. student soon after the

publication of his book on organizational assessment

(Van de Ven and Ferry, 1980). The product of

extensive longitudinal fieldwork, the book

overwhelmed me with its craftsmanship, leading me

to discover Van de Ven’s research, which I have

followed closelyever since. Two decades later, I have

ended up working in the same department with Van

de Ven, giving me an opportunity to know him, listen

to his talks, attend his doctoral seminar on theory

building, and observe how he works with students

and other coauthors. These varied experiences have

given me insights into why he has been able to

produce work that has set worldwide standards and

transformed scholarship in the field. Van de Ven has

done so over a remarkably extended period of time

and across severaltopical areas, especially innovation

and entrepreneurship, the theme of this article. His

pioneering research into these two areas has been

Keywords: innovation journey; corporate venturing;

entrepreneurship; organizational change; processresearch

*Correspondence to: Shaker A. Zahra, Carlson School of

Management,University of Minnesota, 321 19thAvenue South,

Minneapolis,MN 55455, U.S.A. E-mail: zahra004@umn.edu

Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal

Strat. EntrepreneurshipJ.,10:413–429 (2016)

Published onlinein Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI: 10.1002/sej

Copyright © 2016 Strategic Management Society

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impactful, offering important findings that have

revised our views and shaped the course of

subsequent scholarship. From the start, Van de Ven

has been the consummate researcher who practices

engaged scholarship in its best sense, connecting the

world of theory and practice, making his views on

‘process’research especially powerful.

In this article, I will discuss how Van de Ven’s

pioneering research has provided a broader and more

dynamic depiction of entrepreneurship than

commonly done in the literature, highlighting its

collective nature while celebrating the individual.

His discussions of the role of entrepreneurial

infrastructures have shaped the contemporary

conversation of the nature, role, and evolution of

entrepreneurial ecosystems. His views and

methodological contributions have offered a much-

needed approach to studying the entrepreneurial

phenomena longitudinally.

In the remainder of this article, I will first present

a short biography of Van de Ven’s distinguished

career. Then I will focus on his research on the twin

themes of innovation and entrepreneurship. Next, I

will outline central themes in and findings from his

work, explain how he has addressed these issues,

and reflect on the contributions of his work and its

implications for future research in entrepreneurship.

To do so, I will build on an extensive review of

the field, first-hand personal observations, and three

face-to-face interviews with Van de Ven in 2015

and 2016.

Background

1

Andrew Van de Ven was born on October 30, 1945,

in Schijndel, Netherlands. At the age of five, his

family moved to Toronto, Canada and later settled in

Green Bay, Wisconsin. He received his BA in liberal

arts and business administration from St. Nobert

College, West de Pere, Wisconsin. He then attended

the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where he

received his MBA and met Professor Andre Delbecq,

who has been his advisor and mentor ever since.

Professor Delbecq encouraged him to pursue a Ph.D.

degree, which he received in 1972 in Interdisciplinary

Program Administration—a program that crossed the

departments of management, industrial engineering,

social work, sociology, and educational psychology.

Van de Ven taught at Kent State University (1972 to

1975) and then moved to the Wharton School,

University of Pennsylvania (1975 to 1981), where he

became full professor and the director of the Ph.D.

program in organization studies. In 1982, Van de

Ven joined the Carlson School of Management at

the University of Minnesota, where he was the 3M

Professor of Human Systems Management from

1982 to 1992 and then the Vernon H. Heath Chair of

Organizational Innovation and Change (since 1993).

While at the Universityof Minnesota, Van de Ven

has been a major institution builder. He was the

founding director of the Ph.D. program in Strategic

Management, co-chair of the Strategic Management

and Organization Department, Founding Director of

the Strategic Management Research Center, and a

leader of several key committees at Carlson and

throughout the University. He has been the chair of

the Organization and Management Theory Division

of the Academy of Management (AOM), as well as

an AOM fellow,president, and a member of the board

of governors.

A prolific author, Van de Ven has coedited 13

books and published 53 book chapters and 100

articles (including four reprints). He has also

presented his research in seminars in more than 80

universities worldwide. His work has been cited

widely (Aguinis et al.,2012),garnering53,451

citations on Google Scholar as of April 17, 2016.

One study identified Van de Ven as the 15th most-

cited management scholar over the past 25 years

(Podsakoff et al., 2008). His research has been

honored by numero us awards, including the Terry

Book Award from the Academy of Management,

Academy of ManagementReview Best Article Award,

Academy of Management Perspectives Best Article

Award, and the SchendelBest Paper Prize at Strategic

Management Journal. He has received a careeraward

from the Organization and Management Theory

Division and the Midwest Academy of Management.

He was chosen to deliver Distinguished Scholar

lectures in the Technology and Innovation

Management Division and Health Care Management

Division, both of the AOM. In addition, Van de Ven

has had a distinguished editorial career and has been

the recipient of many other major awards.

A master teacher, Van de Ven has been active in

developing undergraduate and graduate curriculums

at the various institutions where he has served. His

mentorship of Ph.D. students, in particular, has won

1

This section builds on website (https://carlsonschool.umn.edu/

faculty/andrew-van-de-ven, http://umn.edu/~avandeve and

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_H._Van_de_Ven) and

personal interview (in October and November 2015) material.

Information on student advising and supervision as well as

publicationsare based on personal communication.

414 S. A. Zahra

Copyright© 2016 Strategic ManagementSociety Strat. EntrepreneurshipJ.,10:413–429(2016)

DOI: 10.1002/sej