Title: Athletes as entrepreneurs: the role of social capital and leadership ability

Authors: Vanessa Ratten

Addresses: School of Management, La Trobe Business School, La Trobe University, Kingsbury Drive, Bundoora 3086, Melbourne, Australia

Abstract: The role of athletes as entrepreneurs is an under-explored area of the entrepreneurship and sport management literature. The purpose of this paper is to provide a theoretical and conceptual understanding of athletes as entrepreneurs by utilising human capital in the form of social, emotional and leadership abilities. The paper extends the current literature on sport entrepreneurship by combining leadership theory with the literature on sport management and entrepreneurial dynamics to understand the complexity of athletes as entrepreneurs. This paper offers a new understanding of athletes as entrepreneurs by bridging the gap between social capital theory, psychology theory and sport entrepreneurship theory.

Keywords: athletes as entrepreneurs; sport entrepreneurship; social capital; sport management; leadership; human capital; emotion; entrepreneurial dynamics; psychology.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2015.070217

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2015 Vol.25 No.4, pp.442 - 455

Received: 09 Dec 2014
Accepted: 15 Dec 2014
Published online: 29 Jun 2015 *

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