Option 3: Develops "Productive Degeneracy" as an operational framework for strategic navigation under extreme uncertainty, where multiple operational paths can achieve similar strategic outcomes. This framework positions operational models as strategic capabilities by showing how stakeholder heterogeneity (different responsiveness rates or "clockspeeds") creates exploitable structure in otherwise degenerate decision spaces. Rather than viewing degeneracy as optimization failure, this approach demonstrates how the apparent redundancy of multiple viable paths actually enables robust navigation when facing extreme uncertainty, with applications spanning platform scaling, venture pivoting, and innovation strategy across entrepreneurial contexts. **"Productive Degeneracy: An Operational Framework for Strategic Navigation Under Extreme Uncertainty"** **Stream 1: Operations-Strategy Interface Under Uncertainty (35%)** - Operational capabilities: Wu et al. (2010) - micro-foundations of advantage - Strategic flexibility: Sanchez (1995) - modular designs, Van Mieghem (1998) - volume-variety - Complexity in strategy: Levinthal (1997) - NK landscapes, March (1991) - exploration/exploitation - Biological degeneracy: Edelman & Gally (2001) - robustness from structural diversity - Gap: "No framework shows how operational flexibility enables navigation when variables >> constraints" **Stream 2: Integrated Decision-Making Theory (35%)** - Real options in operations: Van Mieghem (2003), Goyal & Netessine (2011) - Parallel search: Kornish & Ulrich (2011) - simultaneous experiments - Multi-level optimization: Colson et al. (2007) - bilevel programming - Bayesian operations: Besbes & Muharremoglu (2013) - learning while doing - Gap: "Sequential approaches dominate; no model for simultaneous optimization in (q,β) space" **Stream 3: Entrepreneurial Operations & New Forms (30%)** - Effectuation & lean startup: Sarasvathy (2001), Eisenmann et al. (2012) - Temporary organizations: Bakker (2010) - time-bounded operations - Platform operations: Parker et al. (2016) - ecosystem coordination - New venture operations: Kickul et al. (2011) - resource constraints - Gap: "Missing formal models linking operational mechanisms to entrepreneurial phenomena" **Positioning**: "We provide the first rigorous operational model showing why degeneracy—traditionally viewed as optimization failure—actually enables robust navigation of extreme uncertainty. Our framework bridges entrepreneurial phenomena with mathematical optimization, demonstrating how integrated (q,β) decisions transform strategic constraints into navigational structure." **Key Innovation**: Shows that stakeholder heterogeneity (different βs) creates exploitable structure in otherwise degenerate spaces, with immediate applications to platform scaling, venture pivoting, and innovation strategy.