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PurposeHow do social factors motivate and influence scholars when they theorize? By exploring the life of George Homans, this paper aims to illustrate that theories are the products of the theorist, and as such are influenced by individual life experiences.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on a plethora of archival sources including many personal and autobiographical accounts, this manuscript synthesizes these sources thus providing clear insight into how personal factors and experiences impacted Homans's social exchange theory.FindingsThis research concludes that Homans's journey into theorizing was an act of providence; that his early career, personal background, and social capital interacted with several factors beyond his control thus leading to his interest in social exchange processes.Originality/valueThis is the first research endeavor exploring the context, sentiments and motivations of George Homans as he began to lay out social exchange theory.

Cover -- Guest editorial: the early adolescence of entrepreneurship research -- The prehistoric entrepreneur: rethinking the definition -- Race, class, gender and social entrepreneurship: extending the positionality of icons -- A foreigner in a foreign country: examining biography and memoirs of Georg Mayer through reflexive agency -- Harmonious entrepreneurship: evolution from wealth creation to sustainable development -- Norwegian entrepreneurs (1880s-1930s) and their "new America": a historical perspective on transnational entrepreneurship and ecosystem development in the Russian Arctic.

Purpose– Theories develop over time and are influenced by both events and people. Looking primarily at the applications between contracting principal-agent relationships, the purpose of this paper is to explore how agency theory emerged from a number of economic and social developments. In doing so, the authors explain how this once dominant theory comes up short regarding varying realms of entrepreneurship as well as with multiple modern business phenomena.Design/methodology/approach– The authors first present a brief overview of agency theory. Second, the authors identify major events and people and address how they impacted the development of agency theory. Third, the authors provide insights on agency theory across three contexts (strategic entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, and family business). Implications, limitations, and future research directions are then offered.Findings– The authors provide a deeper understanding of agency theory, thus broadening its underpinnings and enabling readers to more readily understand why agency theory is limited in its explanation of certain and modern business phenomena. The authors find that some of the seminal influences to agency theory are quite dated which has limited its explanatory power in terms of the modern day business and with more recent disciplines such as entrepreneurship.Research limitations/implications– The authors are limited by their choices of major events that influenced agency theory at the expense of not being able to include everything that may have impacted the theory over time. These limitations, however, are offset by the research implications. As the authors highlight the underpinning of agency theory, the authors subsequently provide scholars and practitioners with five primary boundary conditions, each of which are in need of attention for agency theory to maintain relevant explanatory power.Originality/value– A deeper understanding of agency theory can be gained by looking at its underpinnings. By presenting numerous principal-agent conflicts and demonstrating areas in which it has fallen short (i.e. entrepreneurship and more recent business phenomenon), we shed light on the obstacles agency theory must overcome in order to maintain its position as a prominent theory.

Purpose– This paper aims to explore the true sources of innovation that revolutionized two sports industries – skiing and tennis, tracking the flow of ideas and power of technology brokering through the eyes of the innovator, Howard Head.Design/methodology/approach– Using a focal innovation action-set framework, the authors unite heretofore-disparate pieces of information to paint a more complete picture of the innovation and technology brokering process. Primary source material from Head's patents, personal memoirs and journals and documented correspondence between him, his brother and his colleagues are augmented with secondary source material from periodicals, media excerpts and the academic literature.Findings– Head stands as an exemplar example of a technology broker, both through his serial practice of recombinant innovation and his savvy exploitation of resources. Results discredit the Great Man Theory of Innovation, while emphasizing the importance of exploiting social capital to realize opportunities.Originality/value– This paper is the first to offer detailed insight into the technology brokering and innovation processes that revolutionized the tennis and skiing industries. It is novel in that it is one of very few papers to challenge the Great Man Theory of Innovation propagated by many textbooks and mass media, explores the process of technology brokering from the broker's perspective rather than organizationally and uses focal innovation action-set methodology to complement a historical biographical sketch of innovativeness relative to sports equipment and machines.

The authors present core concepts of entrepreneurship in an easy-to-follow, logical sequence. Starting with basic definitions and an overarching conceptual framework in Part I, the book then addresses topics pertaining to Venture Initiation (Part II), Venture Management (Part III), and Venture Development (Part IV). Each chapter contains a case study in which a real-life entrepreneur, who confronts the issues of growth and competition, is followed. Venture initiation and development are key components of this book. Entrepreneurship has all the standard features that entrepreneurs-in-training ne.

This author accepted manuscript is deposited under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC) license. This means that anyone may distribute, adapt, and build upon the work for non-commercial purposes, subject to full attribution. If you wish to use this manuscript for commercial purposes, please contact permissions@emerald.com. ; Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the moderating effects of social competencies, specifically, political skill, self‐monitoring and emotional intelligence, on the workplace conflict‐abusive behavior relationship. Design/methodology/approach: The study utilized data collected from graduate and undergraduate students majoring in psychology, management, human relations and social work who were recruited from two mid‐sized mid‐western universities. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was used to test the study hypotheses. Findings: Results indicated that interpersonal conflict in the workplace is associated with employee engagement in counterproductive work behaviors. Results also suggested that social competencies interacted with interpersonal conflict to predict the likelihood of abusing others at work. Politically skilled workers and high self‐monitors were more likely to engage in abusive behaviors when experiencing high levels of interpersonal workplace conflict. Originality/value: The study is the first to show that certain social competencies may actually have negative ramifications in the workplace. Specifically, individuals who are politically skilled and/or high self‐monitors are more likely to abuse others when they themselves experience interpersonal conflict. ; Yes