Exploring the Social Dimension of Entrepreneurial Resourcefulness: A Case Study Among Family Business Entrepreneurs

In current times of economic crisis some entrepreneurs seem to succeed better than others to manage their scant resources and to deploy them in a creative, resourceful manner (Baker & Nelson, 2005). Literature suggests that the latter entrepreneurs are being entrepreneurial resourceful. Little is known however, about how exactly entrepreneurial resourcefulness works. In search for a better understanding, we focus on the social dimension of entrepreneurial resourcefulness which received little attention. The latter we define as the relational inter-and intra-organization ties that contribute to the entrepreneurs' ability to identify and seize the opportunity for the benefit of the organization (Misra & Kumar, 2000). This social dimension may be of particular importance because relationships are building blocks of the organization and in family firms even more so. Family firms are characterized by involvement of family in the business and they have both productive and destructive relationships among (non-) family members (Dyer, 2003). Family firms also often show remarkable entrepreneurial behavior (Craig & Salvato, 2012). They may therefore provide valuable information on the social dimension of entrepreneurial resourcefulness. Following, the aim of this paper is to shed light on how organizational relationships contribute to entrepreneurial resourcefulness. We utilize case-study data from interviews with 36 family business entrepreneurs. We provide some preliminary findings: Our results confirm that family business entrepreneurs build strong internal and external relationships; Our results suggest that the quantity of intra-organizational relationships is related to the extent of opportunities available to the entrepreneur; Our results suggest that the quality of intra-organizational relationships is the most defining element for entrepreneurial resourcefulness. This paper offers deeper insight into the essence of entrepreneurial resourcefulness. This paper also contributes to knowledge on the interactions in family businesses between an owning family on the one side, and internal and external business stakeholders on the other side (Gersick, 1997).