developed from an intuitive way of working in a situation where differences in expectation over generations become visible. Where the founder had a rather unconscious motivation with related problems in communication, the present duo of entrepreneurs is more able to put their unconscious drives into words, communicate about it and work on conditions to make a dialogue feasible.
2. For some 10 years the relation between the persons inside the company, acting as a community, has been based on trust within the family of insiders. Gradually this type of trust is changing into a kind of condi- tional trust, with varying expectations over generations.
3. The relation between the working community towards the business environment is based on a sound mutual challenge. Here, there is an explicit orientation in external reference towards the customer.
4. The relation of the working community towards other parts of the human society is of a hybrid character. The management intends to combine profitability with societal spin-offs, within a framework of small margins, while the personnel are struggling with the differences in belief systems at work and at home, frequently leading to work–home conflicts.
The analysis of these relations leads to the conclusion that from the view- point of the engineer/entrepreneur, cooperation can enlarge his/her span of innovation. For the employees, cooperation can be interesting because it confirms their membership in the community and the appraisal of their individual competences. Cooperation over generations can stimulate the learning process, under the condition that the participants in the learning process have the intention to develop in a community that has pluriformic properties. In this more feminine-orientated business context, the individ- ual participants will be able more than ever to contribute to their own myth of a small company that is able to show a steady growth under competitive and complex market conditions.
CONCLUSIONS, QUESTIONS, LIMITATIONS AND
condition for success in a high-tech venture. We have explored the case of Bradford on the basis of an intuitive research framework from a psycho- analytical and sociological viewpoint. During the analysis more questions arose. How to see the myth – as a conscious logical framework or as intu- itive storytelling? From the viewpoint of the founders it might be a well- considered company policy. However, they have to deal daily with all kinds of ‘not so logical’ symptoms of the various generations of employees. So is the myth in the head or in the heart? Here, an interesting paradox occurred; how can a community behave with so many feminine character- istics given the rather masculine behaviour of founder Ed Voeten? Another matter concerns the way in which the myth is developing. It started as a supply-driven community with professional welding capability. In the meantime, the company has made several shifts that were market driven.
What does this mean for what the community of practice stands for? To be able to formulate these and such questions might be the greatest yield of this chapter, apart from the conclusions that are related to the content of the case.
The psycho-analytical viewpoint led to the insight that the duo of Raoul Voeten and Nico van Putten is successful mainly because of their comple- mentary backgrounds. Thus they have a larger innovation span than the founder of the company. Also, this trustful relationship enables them to reflect on important issues in leadership or management. From the socio- logical viewpoint the community of practice would not have been able to make the various frame-breaking changes in product market positions without intensive cooperation. Furthermore: for decades, the teamwork of the community members with customers formed a keystone of the innov- ation process. The entrepreneurs have managed to interact with the com- munity of supervisors and employees in a rather fluid and open way to take the company to a next stage of development. Inevitably this is accompanied by rational or emotional ups and downs, but the underlying constructive pattern of cooperation is unmistakable. A tentative conclusion can be that cooperation between stakeholders is indeed a necessary condition for success in a high-tech venture. In the perspective of this conclusion we have illustrated that the personal traits of the entrepreneur are really relevant in the development of a high-tech venture. As stated above, the two methods used to support the analysis of the myth should show some inter- nal validity. Do they? Combining the psycho-analytical and the sociologi- cal methods leads to the observation that both pathways are necessary to develop the myth of this company. In fact this very mix is responsible for the enlarged abilities in the span of innovation.
A second conclusion can be drawn from the research method of the myth.
The findings in the Bradford case have to be seen as an exploratory study. In
this chapter, we have no ambitions except to present the company operation and evolution through the manager’s decisions, and the cooperation between the employees. The cross-analysis between psychoanalysis and sociology, in terms of sciences, brings us a particular clarification of the situation. They are both human sciences, the science of man in relation to other things, of which job and company offer a privileged place of life and observation. We are aware of the difficulty of this exercise, and we have pro- ceeded because it may give an original and innovative contribution that would enlarge the researchers’ viewpoint and knowledge in this topic. This takes us back to what a myth is about. As described above, a myth tells about a ‘founding hero’ – in the case of Bradford, Ed Voeten and his successors Raoul Voeten and Nico van Putten. Psycho-analysis helps us to bring their profiles to life. The myth also explains how the community of Bradford developed and what its roots were. The social structure is identified accord- ing to the insights of Nisbet. Finally, in the still developing myth of Bradford, the founding hero is no longer part of the community that he founded. To systematically describe the phases of a myth we need an addi- tional methodological criterion. Here the approach of Takahiro Fujimoto (2004) on multi-path system emergence is interesting, offering an evolution- ary framework to analyse process innovation. This raises the question whether and how the evolution of a community of practice is related to radical changes in products or in the market positioning of a company. Can the development of a working community be seen as a necessary condition for sustained technological innovation? The answer to these questions would require a longitudinal approach.
As for the practical aspect of our study, both directors have fully rec- ognized our case description and were astonished by the precision of our analysis of their personal leadership and the community of practice. As Raoul Voeten stated: ‘It is a way of looking at our company that we would never have thought of ourselves and we can learn a lot from it. We really are going to discuss these insights in our community’. This at least gives confidence in the face validity of our dual approach. It is also a sign of internal consistency of the methods used. In addition it can be concluded that there is an ecological validity: this kind of study is relevant for the innovative power of companies. The limitations of this exploratory study are manifold. In this chapter we have no other ambitions than to explore the phenomenon of cooperation from the viewpoint of psycho-analysis and sociology. As is usual in such an early stage of research we end up with more questions than answers. These are both human sciences that allow the study of work and enterprises. We were aware of the difficulties of this exercise, but nevertheless tried to contribute in an original way to broaden the view and the knowledge. We need to be more specific in our
further analysis, both qualitatively and quantitatively. More focus is also needed on the differences between corporate and professional culture.
This analysis indicates that professional culture might be more relevant than it is often thought to be. In this study we limited the analysis of a high-tech venture to the phenomenon of cooperation. We did not extend the analysis to related or even competing concepts such as rivalry. We used approaches that have only a small scientific basis, but in this first effort this is not a handicap. For instance, one of the main limitations is the fact that we do not know whether the insights can be generalized to other sectors.
The external validity of our approach is as yet unknown. In order to elaborate on this, we shall have to extend our investigations to other lines of business. Then, a hybrid approach might also be useful, in a qualitative and quantitative respect. In future studies the scientific validity has to be grounded further. Another limitation is that we have presented only one snapshot in time. To observe the underlying patterns more thoroughly would require a longitudinal study, which would comprise a longer period of observation for the evolution of an organization. Of course, the geog- raphical boundary of the European cultural space is a limitation. It would be interesting to see how entrepreneurship with high-tech ventures in other cultural blocs would manifest itself, such as in Asia, the United States or South America. With regard to the time perspective of our results, a longi- tudinal study would certainly enrich the analysis. Then, it would become possible to investigate a statement such as ‘everybody can adopt an entre- preneurial spirit under the appropriate circumstances’ which can be associated with Hofstede’s study on being self-employed because of dissat- isfaction. A longitudinal angle would also allow us to study the so-called
‘backwash effects’. It seems clear, however, that a 10-year longitudinal study would represent real progress in research on this topic. A short cut would consist in taking some comparable companies (size, line of business, environment and so on) and observing them at different junctures (such as creation, development, rupture, crisis, transfer, closing).
Another difficulty can also emerge – the cultural differences – and we would have to consider, in each case, the constitution of the management spirit, and what determinant links the manager, the interactions and the environment. Furthermore, the differences in gender, age, cultural or regional background could be investigated. We hope to organize an exchange of facts and projects in order to achieve a more systematic research plan, providing insights into the conditions for innovation. The creation of the SURVIE group is a step towards an answer to this problem.
We want to organize the exchange of data, researchers and projects and constitute an active research network in these company issues. At the
horizon of our research, but not beyond our scope, cooperation cannot be seen as a stand-alone process within companies. In a society that is indi- vidualizing more and more it is not self-evident that cooperation is a natural property of citizenship. This puts solidarity between generations at risk and endangers the trust of the individual in processes that are needed to ensure a safe and learning society. Basically it reflects the signs of our time, especially of the new generations, including those teenagers who engage in anti-social behaviour, and who are aggressive towards all those who represent authority and the government, such as the police,firefighters and even doctors. The dual methodological approach that is used in this chapter might even be used to analyse these kinds of societal processes. So let us, as researchers, focus on what we can influence, that is, the develop- ment of a European research network. Coordination between economic, human and geographic fields, with their own particularities, will enrich the knowledge of the world that we have. Such insights can give food for thought, for instance, about the genus and their respective place in the organization, or about how a concept like cooperation is related to femi- nine or masculine properties.
The aerospace of the European member states seems to have progressed in its ability to cooperate, but with real important disparities. On the basis of such research and reflections, as representatives of a scientific commu- nity we can mirror political priorities and what is becoming a reality of the political agenda be it Lisbon, Stockholm, Barcelona or Paris. The expan- sion of the research network in the rest of the world will be advantageous for our work. Here, a challenging research agenda might be the best compass for cooperation. This brings us back to where this chapter started:
the analysis of the influence of the entrepreneur in a high-tech venture shows that cooperation is as vital to survival as other entrepreneurial com- petences. Individualistic behaviour or monomanic focus on business statis- tics can become more meaningful for survival within a framework of constructive internal and external relations. Some guidelines for practice in human resources management can already be derived from our exploratory analysis. The first guideline is that cooperation between individuals, and on the level of the community as a whole, can be seen as a powerful driver to enlarge the span of innovation of a company. A second guideline concerns the need in high-tech ventures to invest in the conditions that favour coop- eration. Unlike high-tech gadgets that can be bought at the drop of a hat, cooperation is a virtue that needs time to develop. Finally, not only can entrepreneurs themselves stimulate the abilities for survival of the myth, but also supervisors as well as individual employees play their own role, and in this sense they are part of the venture capital. To sustain a myth needs solid ground.