Learning Corner

Authors: Martin Ruef

Year: 2010

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Recent surveys show that more than half of American entrepreneurs share ownership in their business start-ups rather than going it alone, and experts in international entrepreneurship have likewise noted the importance of groups in securing micro-credit and advancing entrepreneurial initiatives in the developing world.

Yet the media and many scholars continue to perpetuate the myth of the lone visionary who single-handedly revolutionizes the marketplace.

The Entrepreneurial Group shatters this myth, demonstrating that teams, not individuals, are the leading force behind entrepreneurial start-ups.

This is the first book to provide an in-depth sociological analysis of entrepreneurial groups, and to put forward a theoretical framework - called relational demography - for understanding activities and outcomes within them. The Entrepreneurial Group reveals how studying the social structure of entrepreneurial action can shed light on the creation of new organizations.