A Multi-Dimensional View of Entrepreneurship: Towards a Research Agenda on Organisation Emergence

Abstract

This paper attempts to synthesise the theoretical research on entrepreneurship and social capital undertaken in previous studies, and presents a multi-dimensional view of entrepreneurship. In examining overviews of past single perspective entrepreneurship research, this study shows that the primary role of entrepreneurs in organisation emergence is to acquire knowledge and create social capital properly. This process is necessarily accompanied by creation of knowledge communities to establish the domain consensus of new organisations among various stakeholders paying particular attention to the fragility and dysfunctional side of entrepreneurship and social capital. The paper concludes with a hypothesis and suggestions towards a future research agenda. It is hoped that, as a result of this theoretical development, this paper will help to focus greater attention on the concept of entrepreneurship in studies of management development.

Keywords: Entrepreneurialism, Capital, Human capital, Knowledge management, Dysfunction