What is it about?

The process of starting up a new business venture is a key time to be identifying business assets and building credibility and authority within the market. This article provides a theoretical framework for how to best utilise business assets - economic, cultural, social and symbolic capitals - in order to effectively establish a business. The research focuses on how to construct a 'strategic fit' between the entrepreneur and the industry, by making the most of these assets, combining them, and utilising them in different and diverse contexts in order to maximise business advantage.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

All businesses have assets, but many entrepreneurs are not aware of how they can effectively utilise their assets to gain a business advantage. This article contributes to the growing research that places entrepreneurial processes within social contexts as well as the 'Entrepreneurship as Practice' field. The article offers guidance for microbusinesses, and practical implications for both the business support fields as well as future research directions.

Perspectives

Writing this article as a sole author, I developed this theoretical framework to capture and make visible important mental and non-verbal processes in starting a new business. As a former business adviser I have seen many cases of micro-business founders not identifying or effectively using their assets, or not even knowing that they could be used to their business advantage. Thus I see this task of making visible the assets and how to use them for doing business as an essential area of study. I hope this article inspires my theoretical ideas to be practically applied and to make a difference for small businesses.

Dr Inge Hill IJBR Editorial Review Board
The Open University

Read the Original

This page is a summary of: How did you get up and running? Taking a Bourdieuan perspective towards a framework for negotiating strategic fit, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, April 2018, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/08985626.2018.1449015.
You can read the full text:

Read

Resources

Contributors

The following have contributed to this page