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Entrepreneurship Success: “The Lone Ranger” Versus “It Takes a Village” Approach?

2013; De Gruyter; Volume: 3; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1515/erj-2013-0056

2194-6175

Sharon M. Danes,

Innovation and Socioeconomic Development

A prominent metaphor in the entrepreneurship literature is challenged. The entrepreneur is often depicted as a "Lone Ranger" symbolized as a stoic individual making entrepreneurial decisions in isolation. Although entrepreneurship research has examined the impact of social context on venture creation, it has done so without specific regard to the spousal relationship. Based on this literature gap, another metaphor of "It Takes a Village" is suggested. Such a metaphor recognizes that many entrepreneurs make their entrepreneurial decisions within an immediate decision context of the couple potentially creating a greater probability of new venture success. That decision context is ripe with a myriad of emotions that must be traversed in moving toward mutually shared decisions. If entrepreneurs have a strong couple relationship as they create new ventures, that relationship strength can provide a reliable stock of resilience capacity that can be drawn upon to combat the liability of newness of a new venture.