Institutional capabilities and entrepreneurial advantage: Bridging the gap between regulatory management and opportunity

Abstract

Firms are increasingly using tactics to manipulate their regulatory constraints, while at the same time regulatory environments are becoming increasingly complex and dynamic. Although scholars have described many of the activities firms use to change their institutional environments, this research has largely examined the manipulation and creation of informal institutions, such as organizational forms or social customs or traditions. We have much less understanding about 1) what drives firms to manipulate formal, regulatory institutions, and 2) why firms might differ in their abilities to create institutional change. This dissertation addresses these issues by linking regulatory constraint manipulation to entrepreneurial outcomes - specifically, the pursuit of valuable business opportunities - and it proposes that firms may develop institutional capabilities, which enable them to pursue competitive advantage strategies that rely considerably on institutional manipulation.