Determinants of Entrepreneurial Success in Emerging Economies A Resource-Based and Dynamic Capabilities Model

What determines entrepreneurial success in emerging economies, marked as they are by institutional uncertainty and limited access to resources? The paper answers this question through a qualitative case study of the student organisation VIP Romania, integrating the Resource-Based View (RBV) and the theory of Dynamic Capabilities (DC) within a framework anchored in the Romanian institutional context. The research rests on five semi-structured interviews with members involved directly in coordinating projects, analysed thematically with NVivo, and tracks the types of resources perceived as critical, the way the organisation develops its dynamic capabilities, and the role of partnerships. The results confirm the architecture of the proposed conceptual model but add an unexpected dimension: a perceived hierarchy of resources. Members place intangible resources, such as, reputation, accumulated knowledge, and networks of contacts in particular, well above material ones, which suggests that the competitive advantage of student organisations in emerging economies is built mainly on relational and reputational assets. Capabilities of adaptation, learning, and reconfiguration show clearly in the way projects are adjusted on the basis of feedback, while partnerships play a dual role, as material support and as a source of legitimacy. The study contributes to the literature by applying the RBV and DC frameworks together in a doubly non-standard context, a non-profit student organisation in an emerging economy, and by adapting the operationalisation of dynamic capabilities to qualitative indicators.