Entrepreneurial pursuits of self‐ and collective interests

Abstract

Entrepreneurs are often portrayed as rugged individualists who go it alone to build new organizations and programs that maximize their self‐interests. This portrayal is incomplete, because it does not account for the fact that entrepreneurs also pursue collective interests. It fails to recognize a basic paradox in human beings of simultaneously seeking individual and collective interests. We argue that an appreciation of the dialectical nature of human beings leads to fundamentally different conceptions of entrepreneurship than those commonly found in literature on entrepreneurship theory and practice. To illustrate our central premise, we focus on entrepreneurial opportunity realization, resource mobilization, and running in packs. Copyright © 2008 Strategic Management Society.