Epistemology

Social movement

Mobilization

Exploit

Programming language

Resource (disambiguation)

Social capital

Philosophy

Economics

Community mobilization

Economic growth

Unification

Finance

Business

Politics

Political science

Entrepreneurship

Public relations

Computer science

Resource mobilization

Sociology

Computer network

Social science

Empirical research

Computer security

Academy of Management Annals

The mobilization of resources is a central and defining feature of entrepreneurship. As the body of empirical research on entrepreneurial resource mobilization has grown, the literature has become increasingly fragmented. We review the literature on entrepreneurs’ mobilization of resources, spanning human, social, financial, and other forms of capital. We identify five critical issues that hold back progress in resource mobilization research. We then propose a path ahead for future research guided by two overarching goals. First, we advocate for a process perspective, focusing attention on how an individual actor’s disposition and situation shape her responses, how these responses interact with those of other actors, and how these individual and collective responses unfold over time to generate outcomes. Second, we call for stronger unification of theory within the entrepreneurial resource mobilization literature and across contiguous conversations in strategy and organization theory. Theoretical consilience will enable the accumulation of empirical research into a cohesive body of knowledge on entrepreneurial resource mobilization.

Turning Lead into Gold: How Do Entrepreneurs Mobilize Resources to Exploit Opportunities?