Entrepreneurial capabilities: Understanding their domain, texture, and role in diverse settings

In this paper we propose that some firms develop a distinct set of entrepreneurial capabilities (ECs) that enable them to bring about and induce changes. These changes are so fundamental that they alter the nature, basis, intensity, direction, and scope of the competitive game and the arena in which this game is played and actors involved. We further propose that these ECs have unique characteristics and textures that set them apart from the capabilities other firms might have. These characteristics can have profound implications for game changing. Our interest in and focus on ECs is timely, given the myriad of internal and external changes young ventures and well established companies need to make, not only to adapt but to thrive and endure. ECs provide a foundation for crafting and implementing strategies that allow firms to envision their competitive arena and how compete differently. These issues, of course, have been the subject of much discussion and debate in the literature. What makes our argument different is the recognition and identification of a unique set of capabilities that could be honed and deployed to effect fundamental changes in managers' mental models of the industry, their firm and the foundation of competitive superiority.