Defining and Creating Entrepreneurial Value: A Multi-Capital, Process and Context Framework

Abstract

Entrepreneurial activity is routinely expected to generate growth, employment, innovation and social improvement, yet entrepreneurship research remains imprecise about what constitutes value, which resources enable its creation and how context shapes its distribution. This conceptual paper addresses that problem by integrating resource-based theory, resource orchestration, effectuation, business-model research, stakeholder exchange and entrepreneurial ecosystem perspectives. It defines entrepreneurial value as a stakeholder-recognised change in economic, social, intellectual-cultural or ecological conditions arising through entrepreneurial action, while distinguishing value creation from capture and value destruction. Entrepreneurial capital is defined as the contextually situated portfolio of tangible and intangible stocks that an entrepreneurial actor can access, mobilise, recombine, renew or deplete. The proposed framework comprises eight forms of capital: cultural, experiential (human), financial, intellectual, manufactured, natural, social and spiritual. Six propositions explain how portfolio diversity, orchestration, process choice, stakeholder recognition, contextual fit and temporal feedback influence realised value. The contribution of this paper is an integrated, testable model connecting resource portfolios, entrepreneurial mechanisms, multidimensional outcomes and ecosystem conditions. The framework also offers a practical diagnostic for entrepreneurs, educators, investors and policymakers seeking to assess value beyond venture growth alone.