Most theories of the firm ignore the entrepreneurial process of how the various resources of the firm are combined in the first place. This paper examines the process of how an entrepreneur obtains commitments from multiple resource providers to create a new venture. Resource providers may be reluctant to commit to an unproven concept, and the commitment of one gives external validation for the others. The entrepreneur has to decide in what order to approach potential providers. The optimal sequence is shown to depend on the entrepreneur's own credibility. When no resource provider wants to be the first to commit, the entrepreneur may shuttle between resource providers for a long time and the opportunity may evaporate before the venture ever gets started. Finally, the resource combination of a firm may differ from its first-best combination, either if the entrepreneur wants to retain a larger fraction of a smaller pie, or if inefficient resource providers are more willing to be the first to commit.
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Paper provided by Stanford University, Graduate School of Business in its series Research Papers with number
1704.
References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
Sergiu Hart & Andreu Mas-Colell, 1994.
"Bargaining and Value,"
Economics Working Papers
114, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, revised Feb 1995.
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Cited by: (explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)
Biais, Bruno & Perotti, Enrico, 2008.
"Entrepreneurs and New Ideas,"
IDEI Working Papers
347, Institut d'Économie Industrielle (IDEI), Toulouse, revised 0000.
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