Title: Still playing the game?

Authors: Helle Neergaard; Norris Krueger

Addresses: CARE, Department of Management, Aarhus University, Haslegaardsvej 10, DK-8210 Aarhus V, Denmark. ' Max Plank Institute of Entrepreneurship, 1632 South Riverstone Lane, #304, Boise ID 83706, USA

Abstract: This paper explores the contribution of various forms of capital to the development of the entrepreneurial venture. It centres on the influence of human capital, which constitutes the foundation of knowledge-based societies and bears on how entrepreneurs organise and manage new technology and knowledge-based ventures. It extends existing theory on human capital by suggesting that the choice of innovative, strategic, organisational and leadership practices are influenced by one important type of human capital: namely socialisation from being trained to compete in sports involving such factors as physical strength, speed, endurance, a competitive mind, strategising and team spirit; all ingredients necessary in building a new venture. The paper departs from a quantitative dataset, triangulating with qualitative data derived from an open-ended survey distributed to two separate samples in order to compare male and female experiences.

Keywords: entrepreneurship; human capital; socialisation; self-efficacy; competitive sports; mastery experiences; role models; social persuasions; intentions; entrepreneurial venturing; new technology based firms; knowledge based firms; sport training.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEV.2012.044815

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Venturing, 2012 Vol.4 No.1, pp.18 - 31

Published online: 31 Jul 2014 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article