A Structural View of Entrepreneurship: Entrepreneurial Governance and Organization

Abstract

Connecting managerial literature with organization theory and economic views on entrepreneurship, the paper provides a structural view of entrepreneurship as a distinctive mode of governance, that can be defined using the concept of human capital investibility (rather than a more vague notion of ‘innovativeness’). On that basis, various theoretical propositions and practical decision making implications are developed according to the investibility and concentration of human capital: whether and when ownership is likely to be concentrated in the entrepreneur or shared with financial investors; how to size the claims of the entrepreneur(s) versus other investors on asset ownership; whether to acquire new human resources through employment or partnership contracts; which legal form of enterprise and which organizational form to adopt. In this framework, both ‘traditional’ and ‘innovative’ entrepreneurial firms can be specified as particular cases. Empirical evidence is provided drawing on original case study material.