ABSTRACT
The notion that entrepreneurs exist in communities, or can interact together to form a community of their own, is not revolutionary (Cornwall, 1998; Lyons, Alter, Audretsch, & Augustine, 2012; Peredo & Chrisman, 2006). Entrepreneurship does not occur in a vacuum, but is embedded deeply in a messy web of social relationships, spread across different economic, social, and geographic environments (Acs & Armington, 2006; Huggins & Thompson, 2012; Lyons et al., 2012; Peredo & Chrisman, 2006; Rupasingha & Goetz, 2013). These relationships impact the people who are (or may become) entrepreneurs, and their actions in turn impact the people and institutions around them (Kwon, Heflin, & Ruef, 2013; Van de Ven, 1993). People in an entrepreneurs’ community may take the form of other entrepreneurs, or entrepreneurial supporters, buyers and suppliers, regulatory agents, local leaders, and lots of people who have nothing to do with the entrepreneur’s business—but whose attitudes may profoundly impact the entrepreneur’s own actions and beliefs. Whereas much of the early literature on entrepreneurship focused on the traits, behaviors, and strategic actions of entrepreneurs as individuals and firms (Gartner, 1990), modern insights recognize the fundamental role of the community not just as an environmental or framework condition for entrepreneurship, but as an active set of participants shaping, supporting, and even inhibiting entrepreneurial behavior both individually and collectively (Johannisson & Nilsson, 1989; Lyons et al., 2012; Peredo & Chrisman, 2006; Thornton, 1999).
