Vision and Relations: Elements for an Entrepreneurial Metamodel

Dr LOUIS JACQUES FILION WAS UNTIL recently director of the Master's programme in Small Business at the University of Quebec at Trois Rivieres. He has recently been appointed director of training and research at the Heart of Quebec Enterpreneurship Center attached to the same university. This research is based on a smaple of 59 enterpreneurs-51 in small firms and eight in large firms from five countries. The implict systemic model of each enterpreneur was mapped using the soft systems methodology developed by Peter Checkland at the University of Lancaster in Britain. Data was gathered through in-depth interviews with the enterpreneurs themselves and,in most cases, teh people around them. The metamodel presetned tin this paper is a result of superimposing the models derived from each enterpreneur studied. This model implies three categories of vision: emerging, central and secondary. Following presentation and explanation of each category, a visionary process is proposed, based on the study and analysis of what enterpreneur do. The main factor supporting both teh development of teh vision and visionary achievement seems to be the enterpreneur's relations systems. Although it is the man factor as far the development of the vision is concrened, theree otehr factors also contribute to the visionary process: leadership, energy and the perceptive system conditioned by each individual's own values. this latter is introduced as the concept of Weltancschauung. A visionary process presetns an interest for enterpreneurial activites as it offers as framework for reflection and actions. It also offers a way for the enterpreneurs to integrate a tam into what he is doing.