Outlines of a behavioral theory of the entrepreneurial firm
Dew_BTEFfinal.pdf (311.7Kb)Abstract
In A Behavioral Theory of the Firm (BTF), Cyert and March [Cyert, R.M., March, J.G., 1963. A Behavioral
Theory of the Firm. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ] present a clutch of ideas for explaining the
behavior of established firms within an environment of well-defined markets, stakeholder relationships, technologies,
and so on. In this paper, we outline a behavioral theory of the entrepreneurial firm that emphasizes
transforming environments rather than acting within extant ones. In particular, we explicate three ideas that
parallel key concepts in BTF: (1) accumulating stakeholder commitments under goal ambiguity (in line
with a political conception of goals), (2) achieving control (as opposed to managing expectations) through
non-predictive strategies, and (3) predominately exaptive (rather than adaptive) orientation.
Description
The article of record as published may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2006.10.008
Rights
This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.Collections
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