Transformation Capacity of the Innovative Entrepreneur: On the interplay between social structure and agency

Markus Grillitsch

No 2017/2, Papers in Innovation Studies from Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research

Abstract: Structural change features prominently in public policy and scientific debates. While a large body of work is concerned with barriers to structural change, this paper focusses on the interplay between structure and agency by focussing on the transformation capacity of innovative entrepreneurs. Transformation capacity is defined as the ability to combine knowledge and resources across different social structures and stimulate institutional change. The paper discusses why and to what extent transformation capacity rests on three key mechanisms: multiple positions, positional mobility, and networks across social structures. The paper elaborates on potential unintended consequences and pre-conditions for transformation capacity.

Keywords: innovation systems; entrepreneurship; radical innovation; structural change; system innovation; institutions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L16 O30 R10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 21 pages
Date: 2017-02-17
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ent, nep-hme and nep-ino
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://wp.circle.lu.se/upload/CIRCLE/workingpapers/201702_grillitsch.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2017_002

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Papers in Innovation Studies from Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research, Lund University, PO Box 117, SE-22100 Lund, Sweden. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Torben Schubert ().