Resource mobilization in entrepreneurial firms

Abstract

We test the relative influence of power and social embeddedness in mobilizing resources between newly-formed businesses and other organizations by re-examining longitudinal data from the Van de Ven and Walker (1984) study of interorganizational relations. We find that resource flows to entrepreneurial ventures are predicted by the total dependence between parties engaged in the creation of value; they are not predicted by dependence advantage (or disadvantage) between the parties. We discuss the implications and propose that a theory of joint resource mobilization may be more useful than a theory of unilateral resource acquisition for understanding how new ventures access external resources.