What is the Action Research Model for Entrepreneurship?

Actively involving relevant stakeholders such as customers, employees, or community members in the planning and decision-making stages of your research can provide unique insights, priorities, and potential solutions that may not be immediately evident to you.

Action research is a powerful way for startups to rapidly iterate through real-world experimentation. By regularly conducting small tests of hypotheses while collecting feedback, founders can gather invaluable customer insights and quickly validate or refine strategic plans as market dynamics shift. This approach helps agile businesses recalibrate more quickly through open-minded learning from frontline staff, customers and results.

In my experience, action research need to be based on the balancing between theory and reality, it also show the courage to solve the problem with some adjustment depending the situation that we facing.

The Action Research Model for Entrepreneurship combines problem-solving and research. It starts by identifying a challenge and creating an action plan. Data is collected, analyzed, and used for plan refinement. This iterative process generates insights, shared with the entrepreneurial community. It's a dynamic approach that fosters entrepreneurial growth and adaptation.

Action Research is not an oxymoron! Action Research is simply the natural process we all use for learning that's been codified into an articulated framework. Just like every person is endowed with the ability to learn, ventures are, by virtue of being human systems, also endowed with the ability to learn. Yet, like people, not all ventures learn at the same level or rate. Action Research is the framework that all ventures can employ to improve their learning capability and capacity. Those ventures that master the art and science of learning are the ones that gain and sustain the Intelligence Advantage! Venture With Vision ??

The Action Research Model for Entrepreneurship is a dynamic and adaptive approach to problem-solving. It aligns well with the iterative and innovative nature of entrepreneurship. By continuously observing, reflecting, and adjusting your actions, you can adapt to changing business conditions, seize opportunities, and address challenges effectively. This model emphasizes a proactive and learning-oriented mindset, which is crucial for entrepreneurial success.

To thrive as entrepreneurs, adopting an experimental mindset can be a game-changer. This mindset involves viewing every business activity as an experiment, from marketing campaigns to product features.

Entrepreneurship indeed mirrors action research, a practice I often advocate for in advising startups. By planning cyclically, acting, and assessing, you not only validate your value proposition but also build a culture of agility and learning. This rigorous approach enhances market fit and investor readiness.

I would like to approach the issue from a negative end: what happens when you do not apply such cyclical thinking? Linear thinking produces predictable, in-box thoughts and assumptions. Assumptions are never validated because there is no feedback mechanism. Valuable customer information is never applied in the next sale. These are all catastrophic to growth. At its core, entrepreneurial thinking is cyclical thinking. Success principles are universal, and success is built on habits which are nothing more than repeated behaviors. So, at its very core, entrepreneurialism holds this agile, action research nature. There must always be innovation, self-examination, frustration and modification.

As I see it, the evidence-based approach is the key ?? part of Action Research for entrepreneurs ??. Whether you apply Action Research by diagnosing, action planning, taking action, evaluating, and learning or the Lean Startup model by building, measuring, and learning the most important step in process is going where the data ?? leads you. Building the habit of testing and - importantly - applying what you learn can set up entrepreneurs for success in any sector.

When I think about action research, my mind immediately goes to the Agile software development process. Many of the same goals that we have in entrepreneurship can be broken down to the same outcomes you look for when building software. When you think about the idea of iteration, that's really what we're talking about here. Small-scale experiments, delivered quickly, feedback gathered, and then launch a new experiment. This idea works well in the software world, and it also works well in business. The main benefit is rapid delivery of value so you don't need to wait "until it's ready" to launch something. The old adage 'done is better than perfect' rings true here, and maximizes your ability to take market share as you learn new data.

By implementing iterative development cycles, where each phase of product creation is followed by evaluation and adaptation, entrepreneurs can fine-tune their offerings in response to market feedback. This approach can lead to more customer-centric products, as it ensures that every iteration aligns more closely with customer needs and preferences.

I have seen that action research and it's implementation empowers the related peer stakeholders for better business practices.

Action research is an emergent process, any attempt to force a reductionist model on the organisation under study (ie. break something down and look closely at the pieces) misses the point of being able to closely consider context, the importance of interconnectedness and the possibility of re-framing the whole.

Action research is invaluable for entrepreneurs, especially in developing trust for a startup. This approach mitigates risk while fostering innovation and stakeholder engagement. It's a blueprint for data-driven decision-making, essential for crafting solutions that resonate with your market.

The challenge is most businesses start with a hunch or lived experience. Balancing that personal experience with data from Action Research can be difficult; especially when the data you receive is at odds with your hunch. Everyone agrees with "going where the data leads you" until it leads you in a direction you don't want to go.

You know, twenty years ago, there were not too many people who would claim they were entrepreneurs. That was a dirty word of uncertainty and mysticism. Entrepreneurs have a love of creating business. This gives them fuel to study it from all angles. The nice thing is that today, there is so much help! It has all been done before and best-practiced. You can find case studies and templates galore, not to mention web-based businesses to help you do just about anything. My advice: seek some guidance. Seek out people who have done it before. Ask them how they did it. Ask them to evaluate how you are doing it. "Blind spots" are called so because you cannot see them; others can, especially those who have the benefit of experience.

Navigating action research can be intricate but rewarding, akin to juggling P&L oversight with product strategy—a dance between data and execution. Ethical considerations and stakeholder communication elevate the stakes. Balance and transparency are vital to leverage its full potential. Consider this approach a strategic investment in your venture's long-term resilience.

Action research is like your venture's GPS, continually recalibrating your route through each business phase. This framework helps you refine your value proposition by translating market gaps into actionable hypotheses, testing them rigorously, and pivoting based on data-driven insights. It’s not just about launching; it’s about learning and iterating for sustainable growth.

To support this ARM, consider taking IDEO Design Thinking approaches in relation to observation as well. Go creative with 100 solutions (regardless of possibility) and see if you can create 3 MVPs (Minimum Viable Product) out of them to test their effectiveness on your audience's observed and identified pain-point(s).

Designing contextual frame work for Action Research Model is the main challenge in Entrepreneurship. It needs to know more about Design Thinking.

Referring to "The Lean Startup" by Eric Ries, the action research model in entrepreneurship involves building, measuring, and learning iteratively. An example is launching minimum viable products to test market hypotheses, then refining based on feedback.

Remember that research is acted upon in various ways for various industries. Some methods show effective results and others can mislead you. The data is a scope needing a scope needing a lens and we do not always know what we do not know and that can cause us to strongly believe inaccurate data. Try to have peer-reviews and multiple cross-references to aid in your data development.

Founders must reward teams for transparently sharing both wins and failures, and view setbacks as opportunities rather than liabilities. An outside sparring partner can also help apply a dispassionate lens to help analyze tests fairly. Most important is establishing Systems to capture, compare and disseminate learnings across the organization to continuously refine approaches.

Identify the Problem: Begin by identifying a specific problem or challenge within your entrepreneurial venture. This problem can relate to various aspects of your business, such as product development, marketing, operations, or management. Data Collection: Gather relevant data and information related to the problem. This can involve surveys, market research, financial analysis, customer feedback, or any other data sources that can help you understand the issue better. Analysis: Analyze the collected data to gain insights into the root causes and contributing factors of the problem. This analysis helps you formulate a clear understanding of the challenges you're facing.