Resources, Capabilities and Entrepreneurial Perceptions*

Abstract

We review and develop a subjectivist theory of entrepreneurship that focuses on individuals, their knowledge, resources and skills, and the processes of discovery and creativity, which constitute the heart of entrepreneurship. First, we establish the fundamental importance of subjectivity in entrepreneurial discovery and creativity. Second, we build on Penrose (1959) to elaborate how entrepreneurs' perceptions and personal knowledge shape a firm's subjective productive opportunity set. Third, we explain that entrepreneurial perceptions and knowledge partly originate from entrepreneurs' experiences in specific business settings such as the firm, the management team, and the industry. Fourth, we highlight the causal connections between subjectivity in entrepreneurship and observed heterogeneity in firm-level economic performance. Lastly, we suggest directions for further advancing a subjectivist resource-based approach to future entrepreneurship research.

Opportunity discovery, entrepreneurial action, and economic organization

“…Some efforts to develop a theory of team entrepreneurship focus on shared mental models, team cognition, and other aspects of the process of identifying opportunities. Penrose's (1959) concept of the fi rm's subjective opportunity set is an obvious link to judgment-based theories of entrepreneurship (Kor, Mahoney and Michael, 2007). 17 Entrepreneurs can also form networks to share expectations of the potential returns to projects (Greve and Salaff, 2003;Parker, 2007).…”

“…This does not mean that images are completely detached from reality, but that reality is fi ltered, or interpreted, by the actor's subjective beliefs. Penrose's (1959) concept of the fi rm's subjective opportunity set also refl ects entrepreneurial imagination, in this sense (Kor, Mahoney, and Michael, 2007). losses described by Sarasvathy (2001).…”

Entrepreneurial Judgment and Value Capture, the Case of the Nascent Offshore Renewable Industry

“…Following Penrose [18], Kor and Mahoney [20,21] argue that firm growth can be seen as a dynamic process of management interacting with their heterogeneous resources, and it is the management's imagined productive opportunities that govern the deployment of these heterogeneous resources. In other words, the management's envisioned, and thus subjective, productive opportunities are a function of their perceptions of available tangible and intangible resources, and their possible deployment combinations.…”

Empreendedor: Origens, Concepções Teóricas, Dispersão e Integração

“…As proposições de Schumpeter vêm sendo retomadas por novas abordagens, atualmente, em fase de gestão, a exemplo da visão baseada em recursos ou capacidades dinâmicas aplicados ao empreendedorismo (K. Foss, Foss, & Klein, 2007;Kor, Mahoney, & Michael, 2007;N. J. Foss, Klein, Kor, & Mahoney, 2008;Zahra, Sapienza, & Davidsson, 2006) e de certas vertentes da teoria evolucionária (Anderson, 2011;Grebel, Pyka, & Hanusch, 2001;Hung & Mondejar, 2005;Metcalfe, 2004).…”