Entrepreneurial Strategies in New Organizational Populations

Abstract

Abstract The first organization of its kind faces a different set of challenges than one which simply carries on a tradition pioneered by thousands of predecessors in the same industry. Given the conditions facing pioneering founders, are different strategies needed for them than for imitators and borrowers? Focusing on the period during which a new form emerges is a crucial theoretical issue, because the struggle to carve out a niche for a new population involves such strong forces that the events of that period may be forever imprinted on the form that persists (Boeker, 1988, Stinchcombe, 1965). Defeat of opposing populations and co-optation of institutional actors, in particular, may cement a form in place that is resistant to change.