Recent surveys show that more than half of American entrepreneurs share ownership in their business startups rather than going it alone. Yet the media and many scholars continue to perpetuate the myth of the lone visionary who single-handedly revolutionizes the marketplace. In The Entrepreneurial Group, Martin Ruef shatters this myth, demonstrating that teams, not individuals, are the leading force behind entrepreneurial startups. This is the first book to provide an in-depth sociological analysis of entrepreneurial groups, and to put forward a theoretical framework for understanding activities and outcomes within them.
Awards and Recognition
- Winner of the 2011 Max Weber Book Award, Organizations, Occupations, and Work Section of the American Sociological Association
Martin Ruef is the Egan Family Professor of Sociology and director of Markets and Management Studies at Duke University. His books include Institutional Change and Healthcare Organizations, Organizations Evolving, and Between Slavery and Capitalism (Princeton).
"Ruef explodes the myth of the lone entrepreneur, showing how those who start businesses assemble productive groups around themselves. He explains in a brilliant, original way how groups evolve into viable organizations and why some succeed while others fail. This is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand how entrepreneurs build businesses and why growing an enterprise is a team sport."—Philip Anderson, INSEAD, director of the Rudolf and Valeria Maag International Centre for Entrepreneurship
"The Entrepreneurial Group systematically looks at theories that guide the explanation of the entrepreneurial process. In an interesting way, Ruef grounds these theories in the real-life experiences of entrepreneurs. He takes on some important issues. This book also brings together all of the research in the sociology of entrepreneurship."—John Sibley Butler, University of Texas, Austin
"Even many of those well read in the research on entrepreneurship believe that Ayn Rand best captured the character of the typical entrepreneur: an individualistic, heroic, modern-day cowboy transforming the economic landscape against all odds. In The Entrepreneurial Group, Ruef effectively dispels this myth. The typical entrepreneur is not an individual but a team. This insight has important implications for academics and legislators."—Olav Sorenson, Yale University
"For millennia, economic progress was driven by small migrant groups introducing innovations to fit new places. Ruef shows how today's entrepreneurs are a lot like those early families and tribes in movement, adapting social organization to localities and opportunities. The Entrepreneurial Group is a drop of sanity in an ocean of fraud about entrepreneurship, especially in teaching positions financed by corporations."—Arthur L. Stinchcombe, professor emeritus, Northwestern University
