Understanding industry emergence through entrepreneurship from a social movement perspective

Abstract

Industry emergence is a complex phenomenon. The entrepreneurship literature has been characterized by individualistic explanations (‘hero’ entrepreneurs), complemented by institutional approaches. Sociology studies can offer alternative explanations for industry emergence. We draw from the concepts of Social Movements to frame the process of industry emergence in its initial phase. We synthesize the theoretical research on social movements, entrepreneurship, and industry emergence in an effort to develop a conceptual framework to improve our understanding of the pre-emergence of an industry. Our main contribution lies in understanding entrepreneurship, and thus industry emergence, as a community process in which multiple actors eventually result in a reduced number of early start-ups, which gives rise to a new industry. In addition, we propose that the type of movement will lead to different enablers and barriers to industry emergence.