DEVELOPING INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS THROUGH COLLECTIVE ENTREPRENUERSHIP: AN INTEGRATED FRAMEWORK

Abstract

This study provides an extensive discussion on how collective entrepreneurship strategies by multiple organizational actors both within and across sectors can yield innovative solutions to several problems. Although the emphasis in the entrepreneurship literature has been largely on initiatives by single actors, combinations and complementarities of resources through partnerships can significantly help produce novel approaches to the ongoing socioeconomic, environmental, political and institutional challenges. How such collective entrepreneurial systems are developed, what the main collaboration dynamics among actors are, how these systems can be managed, and when and where such collective action can produce innovative results are only a few of the curious questions to answer. An important aspect is to understand how seemingly unrelated actors across diverse sectors collaborate. To this end, this study provides an inclusive theoretical framework on how collective entrepreneurial action stimulates innovative outcomes for organizations by evaluating the level, type and characteristics of entrepreneurial collectives. Even though there has been increasing interest in collective entrepreneurship, this is the first attempt where an integrated model is provided to understand this essential phenomenon.

Keywords

• institutional entrepreneurship
• market creation
• collective entrepreneurship
• innovation
• sectoral collaborations