Indu Khurana

Utilizing insights from the social exchange theory, we examine the conceptual underpinnings of social exchange relationships between the entrepreneur and other ecosystem actors, explaining the emergence and expansion of EE‐wide productive entrepreneurship. Adopting a process view, we offer a theoretical framework that suggests that, with time, more actors enter the ecosystem, and with diverse resources, approaches, and expectations. Further, the increase of social exchanges among them leads to an expansion in the structures, processes, and networks, thus influencing EE‐wide productive entrepreneurship. This is an important insight for policymakers worldwide that are interested in ensuring productive entrepreneurship within the EE. Our research offers a compelling theoretical rationale for why effective collaboration among EE actors for sharing resources, information, and knowledge facilitates the achievement of productive entrepreneurship.

This article examines the process by which entrepreneurs identify and work with an arbitrage opportunity emerging from an episodic crisis. Although prior research has investigated the role of entrepreneurial characteristics and context on opportunity development, the specific manner in which these factors emerge in the course of opportunity development during a crisis remain underexplored. By adopting a qualitative approach grounded in case studies of eight entrepreneurs in the US distillery industry, this article addresses that gap by examining the process of arbitrage opportunity development during COVID-19. Our study reveals the primacy of both causation and effectuation-based entrepreneurial decision logics and the role of double-loop learning, as entrepreneurs interact with the time-compressed duration of the arbitrage opportunity. Implications and insights for entrepreneurs, researchers and policymakers are discussed.