12407: Microfoundations of (Non-)Productive Entrepreneurship (session 26131)

Tuesday, July 29, 2025

13:45 - 15:15 CEST (GMT+2)

Location: Bella Center: Hall B- B3-m3

Session Type: Paper Session
Orientation: Research
Shareable link: https://cdmcd.co/D8EDqd

Author(s)

PB

Per L. Bylund

Oklahoma State U., United States
DC

Didier Calcei

ISG - Business and Economics School, France
GG

Gabriel A. Giménez Roche

NEOMA Business School, France
MP

Mark D. Packard

Florida Atlantic U., United States
DR

David J. Rapp

Institut Supérieur de Gestion, France

Baumol’s entrepreneurship allocation theory (productive versus non-productive) has been deeply influential on the field of institutions and entrepreneurship. However, the links between his institutional (macro-level) account and the micro-level entrepreneurial judgments and actions that, in the aggregate, produce macro-level outcomes remain underexplored. This paper develops these missing meso-level processes. Specifically, we connect the cultural context to individual entrepreneurial actions, theorizing on their constraining (but non-deterministic) effects and, consequently, the societal allocation of entrepreneurship. To this end, the paper links Baumol’s framework to entrepreneurial action theory and integrates both the cultural-cognitive perspective and (structural) strain theory to explore the cultural embeddedness of (non-)productive entrepreneurial action.

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