Entrepreneurship & Regional Development

Entrepreneurial Ownership: Understanding the generation of value from and through business ownership

Ownership is a complex concept yet one that is inextricably linked to entrepreneurial success and business growth (Carsrud, Olm, & Thomas 1989; Carree et al. 2007; Raymond et al. 2013). Earlier scholarly conversations have identified that entrepreneurs, as owners of a business enterprise, engage in diverse activities to generate value and (re)engage in the entrepreneurial process (Chan & Lau 1993). For entrepreneurs and business owners alike, ownership facilitates access to several resources (e.g.,  human, physical, social, financial, technological, organizational) that can be used for entrepreneurship (Clough et al. 2018; Wiggins 1995). Prior and recent accounts suggest the importance of having control over resources for the continued creation and identification of entrepreneurial opportunities (Fletcher 2006; Ramoglou & McMullen 2024). Yet, the reality is that having an ownership stake in a business enterprise (e.g.,  through equity, shares, or inheritance) is not necessarily associated with being entrepreneurial. 

Ownership can be broadly defined as the legal, social, emotional, and psychological relationship between an individual, group, or entity and an asset, resource, or organization (Pierce, Kostova, & Dirks 2001). It encompasses the rights to control, use, and benefit from the owned entity (Schulze & Zellweger 2021), as well as the responsibilities and accountabilities tied to its outcomes (Berent‐Braun & Uhlaner 2012).

Scholars have clearly evidenced that we have advanced our understanding about ownership in diverse business forms (Westhead, Howorth, and Cowling 2002; Rosa 1999; Rautiainen et al. 2019; Uhlaner 2024). However, there is a paucity of research about the behaviours and actions that entrepreneurs engage in to generate value from and through the ownership of a business. As noted by both prior and recent insights (Cooper & Dunkelberg 1986; Pittino et al. 2018), we need studies that not only reflect on entrepreneurial events and ownership forms but also create a bridge in our understanding of the link between entrepreneurship and ownership. To address such lacunae, this special issue calls to explore entrepreneurial ownership, which broadly relates to patterns of behavior and action through which entrepreneurs actively exercise their role as owners to influence and leverage the value of ownership for entrepreneurship.

Attention to entrepreneurial ownership matters for several reasons. First, there is a growing interest in societal transformations, complex and uncertain dynamics at the global scale, as well as the rapid changes in technology that may have an impact in the access and control over resources. Second, rough statistics worldwide reveal a persistent trend of consolidation of asset ownership in the hands of a small percentage of individuals (e.g., Shorrocks, Davies, & Lluberas 2021). This contrast signals the urgency to reflect on ownership in terms of taking responsibility for being a business owner, and on the impact that decisions, granted through such control, can have on entrepreneurship and its impact on economic growth, investments,  productivity, innovation, progress, and well-being (Carree et al. 2007). 

There are several aspects that can help in our understanding of entrepreneurial ownership. First, it could be studied in a variety of business forms. For example, in small organizations, business ownership is at the core of the entrepreneurial journey (Stewart Jr et al. 1999). Entrepreneurship involves dealing with the new and uncertain, requiring frequent changes of plans and courses of action and control in the way resources are managed and allocated (e.g., Foss et al. 2007). As entrepreneurs may develop several firms over time, either sequentially or in parallel (Westhead & Wright 1998), unique approaches to the ownership context and ownership structures may reveal underlying entrepreneurial activities linked to opportunities, generated through increasing the value of having an ownership claim. As some businesses develop into a family business form, the importance of ownership is amplified by the participation of family members over time, which often influences the development of a myriad of opportunities and ownership permutations (Rautiainen et al. 2019). 

Second, entrepreneurial ownership embodies the study of the intertwinement between ownership and entrepreneurship through a temporal lens. The generation of value through ownership may reflect the interplay between diverse decisions and events that business owners experience over time (Freel & Gordon 2022). Entrepreneurial ownership may comprise diverse aspects that allow owners to engage in activities within an established enterprise whilst exploring or creating entrepreneurial opportunities in parallel (Dinesh 2021; Shepherd, Patzelt, & Haynie 2010; Wiggins 1995). It can also motivate the decision to engage in strategic renewal (Sievinen, Ikäheimonen, and Pihkala 2020; van Teeffelen and Uhlaner 2010). 

Third, entrepreneurial ownership may complement well with mainstream concepts and perspectives such as entrepreneurial orientation (Grande, Madsen, & Borch 2011) and entrepreneurial mindset (Daspit, Fox, & Findley 2021). Ownership as a context that influences corporate entrepreneurship has been identified as a relevant research path (Girma Aragaw, Haag & Baù 2025). Recent insights suggest that further attention to the doing and practice of entrepreneurship (Champenois, Lefebvre, & Ronteau 2020) may have something to say about entrepreneurial ownership in diverse business forms and by one or more entrepreneurs.

Fourth, one of the preoccupations of entrepreneurs, particularly those who envision the participation of others in the firm, may be about how best to transfer ownership over time, the factors that may facilitate such transition, and to procure that knowledge, competence and experience about how to be an entrepreneurial owner is passed down (Parada et al. 2019; Rosa et al. 2014). For example, in the context of long established firms and business groups, entrepreneurial ownership may relate to creating, acquiring or divesting enterprises and in doing so generate opportunities through diverse ownership structures to generate value (Rautiainen et al. 2019; Uhlaner 2024).

Finally, entrepreneurial ownership studies may be able to join several academic conversations, based on diverse theoretical perspectives, such as:

A) the property rights perspective views ownership as a (legal) right to own an asset (Alchian 1961; Grossman & Hart 1986) and emphasizes the owners’ right to control and make decisions in her/his ownership relationship. Relevant issues from an entrepreneurial ownership point of view here may concern the efficient allocation and distribution of ownership rights when different actors provide assets that are equally important for the success of the entrepreneurial venture in addition to the entrepreneurs (for example, venture capitalists, business angels, but also equity crowd funders) (e.g., Manolova, Manev, & Gyoshev 2014; Power & Reid 2021)

B) The competence perspective highlights the owners' competence in exercising property rights (Foss et al. 2021) . It differentiates ownership competence in matching competence (knowing what to own), governance competence (knowing how to own), and timing competence (knowing when to own). The level of ownership competence is assumed to be positively correlated with the generation of economic value. In the context of small business entrepreneurial ownership, the competence perspective stimulates reflections concerning, for instance,  the changes in the configuration of investments done by owners in their venturing activity, the evolution of ownership coalition as an entrepreneurial firm evolves over time, the varying design of governance arrangements that fit different ownership coalitions and investment configurations (Minola et al. 2022).

C) The psychological perspective refers to a personal sense of possession an individual holds for a material or immaterial target independent from a legal ownership status (Pierce, Kostova, & Dirks 2001). Owners may be psychologically tied to objects because of their active participation or association with them (Rautiainen 2012), but this feeling can also emerge in those who don’t have legal ownership rights on a given object. In the context of entrepreneurial ownership, the psychological perspective can be applied in understanding and interpreting owners’ behaviors, which are often based on emotions, such as escalation of commitment to failing initiatives, investment and divestment decisions, and timing of entrepreneurial entry and exit (Chirico et al. 2018). The psychological perspective may also apply to the investigation of entrepreneurial teams (Yttermyr & Wennberg 2022; Discua Cruz, Hamilton, & Jack 2021) and behaviors of non-owners (e.g., Lee, Makri, & Scandura 2019).

D) The stakeholder perspective considers the wider implications of ownership for different stakeholders, such as the environment, employees, customers, and society. Owners need to behave and undertake socially desirable actions, including the distribution of economic, social, or political benefits to the groups from which they derive their power (Prado‐Lorenzo, Gallego‐Alvarez, & Garcia‐Sanchez 2009). Within entrepreneurial ownership, the stakeholder perspective may suggest, for example, a specific look into the processes of stakeholder enrollment in new venture creation to see what types of exchanges occur between those who hold property rights and those who have other stakes in the entrepreneurial initiative, and to what extent those stakes can be defined investments too. This perspective could be extended to collective/community ownership experiences (Cairns, Southern, & Whittam 2023).

E) The value-based perspective starts from the idea that the owners determine the purpose of their ownership from a subjective reference point, where ownership promotes things that are important to the owner. Possessions can provide both instrumental value and symbolic value (Dittmar 1991). Owners can value non-financial aspects of the ownership stake too (Gomez-Mejia et al. 2011; Zellweger & Astrachan 2008). In the context of entrepreneurial ownership, the value-based perspective is particularly useful to identify and assess the outcomes of an entrepreneurial initiative based on the set of values held by the owners, including also spiritual and religious values (e.g. Astrachan et al. 2020).

The perspectives exemplified above illustrate the wide scope of approaches, although not exhaustive, that can be considered in submissions to this special issue. This special issue on entrepreneurial ownership aims to attract state-of-the-art articles that explicitly focus on the multiple aspects of ownership in connection with entrepreneurship. The special issue is not exclusive to a particular region but takes a global perspective. Bringing together contributions from around the world, the special issue plans to cover the following foci and is accordingly inviting articles to each of these (exemplary) foci.

We invite diverse types of contributions, dealing with different contexts, being conceptual/theoretical, qualitative, quantitative, or experimental by nature. We encourage methodological plurality in the approach to uncover the phenomenon of entrepreneurial ownership, including qualitative methods (e.g., case studies, ethnography, narrative analysis, longitudinal approaches), quantitative methods (e.g., surveys, econometric models, social network analysis), and mixed-method approaches (e.g., combining interview data with statistical modeling). We further encourage introducing new approaches to visualize the phenomenon, including e.g., genograms, network graphs, time series. As this phenomenon is likely to be more widespread than expected, we envision that contextual aspects will be also highlighted and discussed, thus enriching our understanding. 

Questions that might be examined in submissions to this Special Issue include, yet are not limited to:

Ø  How do entrepreneurs and/or stakeholders shape and transform entrepreneurial ownership?

Ø  How does the role and meaning of entrepreneurial ownership influence small and large businesses?

Ø  How does entrepreneurial ownership unfold in different contextual conditions?

Ø  How do owners and managers best leverage the process of professionalizing entrepreneurial ownership, especially in small businesses?

Ø  How is entrepreneurial ownership implemented in different contexts?

Ø  How do entrepreneurial owners influence the board and top management in decision-making and strategic direction?

Ø  How does entrepreneurial ownership affect firm performance?

Ø  How do different ownership structures facilitate or constrain innovation and risk-taking behaviors?

Ø  What does it mean to be an entrepreneurial owner? What characteristics do they display?

Ø  What activities and practices comprise entrepreneurial ownership?

Ø  What challenges and opportunities does entrepreneurial ownership pose?

Ø  What skills and mindset should small business owners and managers develop and apply to entrepreneurial ownership?

Ø  What are the key mechanisms through which ownership influences entrepreneurial behavior and firm outcomes?

Ø  What mechanisms and practices do entrepreneurial owners use to interact with and influence the board and top management?

Ø  When do ownership transitions foster or hinder entrepreneurial activity?

Ø  When does the influence of entrepreneurial owners become most significant in the governance of the firm?

Ø  When do entrepreneurial owners make pivotal decisions that impact the generation of value through ownership, and how do these decisions evolve over time in relation to the business lifecycle?

Ø  Why do some ownership structures lead to higher entrepreneurial engagement than others?

Ø  Why do entrepreneurial owners seek to shape the relationship between the board and top management?

Ø  Why do entrepreneurial owners seek to influence ownership structures and practices, and how does this impact their ability to create entrepreneurial opportunities and drive innovation?

Ø  By whom is entrepreneurial ownership shaped, and what are the roles of different actors (e.g., founders, investors, family members, policymakers, and advisors) in this process?

Ø  By whom is the interaction between entrepreneurial ownership, the board, and top management primarily shaped, and what roles do different actors play?

Ø  By whom are the actions and decisions regarding entrepreneurial ownership and resource control primarily driven, and what roles do these individuals play in shaping entrepreneurship?