Creating community: the process of entrepreneurial community building for civic wealth creation

ABSTRACT This article examines the development of an entrepreneurial community focused on civic wealth creation. This case study identifies how a team of community entrepreneurs successfully leveraged their relationships to develop a shared vision and invest complementary assets to re-build a defunct cotton mill and form an entrepreneurial community around it to create civic wealth through the creation of opportunities of others and curation of the space. Building on the case, the paper explicates the process through which the entrepreneurial community is formed with the intent to create civic wealth, elaborates on the challenges of maintaining dual roles of animator and entrepreneur and highlights the importance of the maintenance of relationships in entrepreneurial communities.