Foss, Nicolai J.; Klein, Peter G.; Bylund, Per L.(Frederiksberg, 2011)
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Abstract:
The study of entrepreneurship and the study of economic organizing lack contact. In fact,
the modern theory of the firm virtually ignores entrepreneurship, while the literature on
entrepreneurship often sees little value in the economic theory of the firm. In contrast, we
argue in this chapter that entrepreneurship theory and the theory of the firm can be
usefully integrated, and that doing so would improve both bodies of theory. Adding the
entrepreneur to the theory of the firm provides a dynamic view that the overly static
analysis of firm organizing cannot support. Moreover, adding the firm to the study of the
entrepreneur provides important clues to how we can understand entrepreneurship.
A concern with teams was central to early attempts to grasp the nature of the firm, but fell out of favor in later work. We encourage a return to the emphasis on teams, but argue that the idea of teams as central to the nature of the firm needs to be grounded in an appreciation of the importance of We frames and group agency. We use converging insights from evolutionary anthropology, cognitive social psychology and work on team agency to develop such a grounding, and link it to the issues of the existence and boundaries of firms.