TY - JOUR
T1 - The Formation and Interplay of Social Capital in Crowd Funded Social Ventures
AU - Lehner, Othmar M.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2014, Taylor & Francis.
PY - 2014/5/27
Y1 - 2014/5/27
N2 - The multi-levelled processes taking place in Crowdfunding (CF), when tapping
a large heterogeneous crowd for resources, and the often fundamentally different
intentions of individual crowd members in the case of highly desirable social
ventures with little prospect for economic gains, may lead to a different logic
and approach to how entrepreneurship develops. Using this under-institutionalized
sphere as both, context and subject, the author seeks evidence and a new
understanding of entrepreneurial routes by using the sociological perspectives of
Bourdieus’ four forms of capital as a lens on 36 cases of social ventures. In the
cases, opportunity recognition, formation and exploitation could not be
distinguished as separate processes. CF and sourcing help form the actual
opportunity and disperse information at the same time. In addition, the ‘nexus’
of opportunity and entrepreneur is breached in CF of social causes through the
constant exchange of ideas with the crowd, leading to norm-value pairs between
the funders and the entrepreneurs. Issues of identification and control are thus
not based upon any formal relationship but based on perceived legitimization
and offered democratic participation leading to the transformation of social
capital (SC) into economic capital (EC). Success is based upon the SC of the
entrepreneurial teams, yet the actual resource exchange and transformation into
EC is highly moderated by cultural and symbolic capital that is being built up
through the process.
AB - The multi-levelled processes taking place in Crowdfunding (CF), when tapping
a large heterogeneous crowd for resources, and the often fundamentally different
intentions of individual crowd members in the case of highly desirable social
ventures with little prospect for economic gains, may lead to a different logic
and approach to how entrepreneurship develops. Using this under-institutionalized
sphere as both, context and subject, the author seeks evidence and a new
understanding of entrepreneurial routes by using the sociological perspectives of
Bourdieus’ four forms of capital as a lens on 36 cases of social ventures. In the
cases, opportunity recognition, formation and exploitation could not be
distinguished as separate processes. CF and sourcing help form the actual
opportunity and disperse information at the same time. In addition, the ‘nexus’
of opportunity and entrepreneur is breached in CF of social causes through the
constant exchange of ideas with the crowd, leading to norm-value pairs between
the funders and the entrepreneurs. Issues of identification and control are thus
not based upon any formal relationship but based on perceived legitimization
and offered democratic participation leading to the transformation of social
capital (SC) into economic capital (EC). Success is based upon the SC of the
entrepreneurial teams, yet the actual resource exchange and transformation into
EC is highly moderated by cultural and symbolic capital that is being built up
through the process.
KW - crowdfunding
KW - social entrepreneurship
KW - social capital
KW - Bourdieu
KW - crowdfunding
KW - social entrepreneurship
KW - social capital
KW - Bourdieu
KW - opportunity
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84904418567&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/08985626.2014.922623
DO - 10.1080/08985626.2014.922623
M3 - Article
SN - 0898-5626
VL - 26
SP - 478
EP - 499
JO - Entrepreneurship & Regional Development
JF - Entrepreneurship & Regional Development
IS - 5-6
ER -