Chapter 3 Putting emotion at the heart of agency: a relational perspective on entrepreneurial action

Abstract

Despite its resonances, the sociological concept of agency – the ability to ‘make a difference’ – has not been widely applied to entrepreneurialism. This chapter makes a case for a relational conception of agency. It extends our thinking about entrepreneurialism into areas that, despite their empirical importance, have received little systematic theoretical attention, specifically, the role of emotions, corporeality and social interactions. The relational theory of entrepreneurial agency allows us to address, in new ways, one of entrepreneurship's enduring questions: why do some individuals rather than others become entrepreneurs? Theoretically, by placing emotion at the heart of agency we propose a theory that can recognise individuality without recourse to individualism. We illustrate this approach through a re-analysis of structural hole theory, which is an attempt to explain (unsatisfactorily in our view) entrepreneurial behaviour by recourse to social network theory. We show how a relational concept of agency can resolve the unhelpful tension between the structural qualities of network relationships and the capacity for individual action.