Bootstrapping New Organizational Forms: The Legitimation of the Travel Agency in Victorian England

Abstract

Although institutional theory has strongly advanced our understanding of organizational form emergence, it is unclear how resource-poor entrepreneurs create novel forms. Based on an inductive study of how the entrepreneur Thomas Cook legitimated the travel agency in Victorian England, we propose a process model of Form Bootstrapping. This approach achieves resource-poor form creation by using publicly available resources. We contribute to the literature by reorienting the role of resources for form creation, enhancing process models of form emergence and showing a new approach to venture creation under resource constraints.