This paper contributes to a recent movement to reframe entrepreneurship theory into a more critical and reflexive mode. It builds on the processual notion of entrepreneuring-as-emancipation to theorize a balanced conception of agency and active constraint rooted in the notion of power rituals. We develop a micro-sociological analysis of power rituals that conceives power reproduction and entrenchment as a 'practice-based' activity that focuses on what power holders and subordinates concretely do, think and feel. This makes emotion a key dimension of entrepreneurial agency and redefines constraining barriers to agency in terms of a social process of 'barring'. This novel approach is illustrated using an autobiographical account of a social entrepreneurship project. On the basis of this analysis, a number of insights are provided into the ways in which the power-as-practice approach can inform wider debates in organization studies where the notions of agency and constraint are linked to issues of power and resistance.

Joseph Schumpeter's work has long been regarded as a seminal contribution to entrepreneurship theory. However, relatively little attention has been given to exploring the sociological implications of his insights. This article examines Schumpeter's early writings on the entrepreneur and focuses on the apparent contradiction between his understanding of the inhibitory effect of social control and the entrepreneur's strength of will. This tension is resolved by recourse to contemporary social theory of interaction and emotion. A synthesis of these works produces two hypothetical modes of entrepreneurial action. These are elaborated and their implications for the understanding of entrepreneurship discussed.

This article offers an alternative to the dominant individualistic theories of entrepreneurship. It develops Scheff’s notion of the deference-emotion system to propose a theory of entrepreneurial conduct that emphasizes social interaction and emotion. This theory proposes that the emotions of pride and shame, produced by the giving and withholding of deference, can motivate action that resists the innovation-inhibiting effect of social sanctions. By suggesting a social basis for the generation and reproduction of entrepreneurial conduct, it is able to explain the frequently volatile and inconsistent nature of this conduct, an important dimension of entrepreneurial behaviour that, whilst recognized empirically, normally escapes theoretical attention. The article advocates making social situations rather than individuals the analytical starting point for fresh and potentially valuable insights into the nature of entrepreneurial behaviour.

Unlike most other areas of social science, emotion has been a neglected concept within entrepreneurship research. Where it has appeared, it has usually been a marginal or subsidiary concern, subordinated to the more rational aspects of information processing and decision-making. This paper draws upon ideas from social exchange, interaction ritual and discourse theory to propose a model that integrates the processes of social interaction, emotion and cognition. The model supports a set of conjectural propositions about the role of emotions in shaping entrepreneurial behaviour and suggests a number of new opportunities for research in this area.

This paper examines the role of negative emotions in the social processes of entrepreneurship. Drawing on a study of Russian entrepreneurs, we develop a model of the emotional effects of social interactions between entrepreneurs and state officials. We found that negative emotions were elicited by these interactions and, in turn, fueled three forms of shame-related corrective appeasement behavior (reactive, anticipatory, and sporadic), which served to corrode entrepreneurial motivation and direct attention and energy away from business growth and development.

We offer a critique of conventional approaches to entrepreneurial barriers and point to the neglect of social and emotional processes in their operation. Drawing from qualitative interviews with 25 entrepreneurs in Russia, we suggest that power rituals between entrepreneurs and state officials may impair entrepreneurial motivation. Our main contribution lies in conceptualizing barriers not simply as objective obstacles but as processes of barring, and in exploring how these might emerge. We elaborate a model of the social nature of barriers and the mediating role played by emotions. We discuss the implications of barring for entrepreneurial action more broadly.

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Research Summary: This article addresses opportunity creation, with particular focus on the interplay between social context and individual agency. Using ideas grounded in contemporary microsociology, we offer a conceptual framework that articulates opportunity-creating agency as the outcome of socially situated subjectivity, supportive or challenging interactions, and the circulation of emotional energy. This dynamic process is illustrated with references to entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson (founder of Virgin). Our article contributes to opportunity creation research by: offering a conception of individual opportunity-creating propensities rooted in social situations and consistent with constructionist assumptions; specifying the role played by affect/emotion in opportunity creation and positing a novel creative role for negative affect; and connecting opportunity creation with other areas of theoretical interest in entrepreneurship, such as creativity, frustration, and hubris. Managerial summary: This article examines how social relationships and emotions can together influence the ways entrepreneurs initiate and shape opportunities. Using examples from the career of Sir Richard Branson (founder of Virgin), we suggest ways in which the emotional intensity of social interactions can motivate entrepreneurs to act decisively to initiate opportunities for business formation and development. We suggest how this may help us understand not just opportunity creation, but also key entrepreneurial issues, such as creativity, frustration, and hubris. K E Y W O R D S affect, agency, emotional energy, interaction ritual, opportunity creation