Entrepreneurial governance and the nature of the entrepreneurial firm

This paper addresses the evergreen question of whether entrepreneurial firms and their organization are characterized by any distinctive traits. The key notion is identified in an “entrepreneurial governance” mode, hybrid between “capitalist” and “collective” governance modes. A research agenda is proposed indicating how this notion might broaden theory and inspire research: it calls for a theory of the firm that encompasses firms governed in different ways, suggests some key structural (economic, organizational, and legal) dimensions for the study of entrepreneurial firm organization that are not usually considered, and identifies concentric and polycentric hybrid forms of internal organizational as specifically fit to entrepreneurial firms.