Title: Illegal entrepreneurialism as determinant of organised business crime maturity

Authors: Petter Gottschalk

Addresses: Norwegian School of Management, Nydalsveien 17, Oslo 0442, Norway

Abstract: Based on the enterprise paradigm of organised crime, this paper presents the concept of criminal entrepreneurialism. A criminal organisation is perceived as a business enterprise based on illegal entrepreneurialism. Entrepreneurs are able to identify and explore business opportunities by applying their judgement in decision-making. This research suggests that entrepreneurialism influences the maturity of criminal organisations. A research model is developed in this paper, linking the extent of entrepreneurialism to the stage of growth in organised crime. At each stage, systems are used by criminals in different contexts.

Keywords: criminal markets; criminal organisations; entrepreneurship; knowledge stage; opportunity stage; research model; stages of growth; systems; organised crime.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBSR.2009.026185

International Journal of Business and Systems Research, 2009 Vol.3 No.3, pp.297 - 308

Published online: 27 May 2009 *

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