Entrepreneurship, subjectivism, and the resource‐based view: toward a new synthesis

Abstract

Abstract This article maintains that the consistent application of subjectivism helps reconcile contemporary entrepreneurship theory with the strategic management literature, particularly the resource‐based view of the firm. The article synthesizes theoretical insights from Austrian economics, Penrose's (1959) resources approach, and modern resource‐based theory, focusing on the essential subjectivity of the entrepreneurial process. This new synthesis describes entrepreneurship as a creative team act in which heterogeneous managerial mental models interact to create and arrange resources to produce a collective output that is creatively superior to individual output. Copyright © 2008 Strategic Management Society.