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

Purpose: This paper proposes an Exchange-Based View of the value creation process. The Borrowing from marketing literature, the EBV advances 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.