Entrepreneurial value creation: Conceptualizing an exchange-based view of entrepreneurship

Purpose – Borrowing fromthemarketing literature, the authors advance that entrepreneurs and stakeholders are tied by exchange relationships, through which they co-create value by reciprocally making and realizing promises of value. Design/methodology/approach – Propositions are developed and offered to advance the role of exchange in the entrepreneurial value creation process. Findings – The authors conceptualize the enterprise as a system of exchange relationships between entrepreneurs and their stakeholders, thus proposing an exchange-based view of entrepreneurship. Originality/value – Such an account of the role of entrepreneurs and of their relationship with the stakeholders has meaningful implications for our understanding of the entrepreneurial tasks of opportunity recognition and exploitation. Keywords Entrepreneurship, Stakeholders, Marketing, Exchange, Relationships Paper type Conceptual paper