Forms and conversions of the economic capital of Croatian entrepreneurs in the computer programming industry with insights into variations of the company's development stages

Abstract

The paper examines traditional knowledge about the role of financial and physicalresources in entrepreneurship. Based on Bourdieu's theory, we search for an answer tothe question of which forms of economic capital are used by Croatian entrepreneurs inthe computer programming industry and what their value in the context of accessingother forms of capital is. The study is based on a qualitative methodological approach.In-depth interview technique accompanied by unstructured observations was used indata collection. In addition to primary data, research includes the use of qualitative andquantitative secondary data. Research suggests that in the computer programmingindustry, economic capital is just one tool in the conversion game of entrepreneurialcapital. Moreover, the interviewed entrepreneurs attach the least importance to it inbusiness, favoring the value of intangible resources such as specialized knowledge,business connections and personal acquaintances. The company's start-up phase ischaracterized by the entrepreneur's reliance on personal savings, which is replaced byfinancing based on retained earnings in the later stages of business. Other forms ofgrowth financing, such as bank loans and recapitalization of external investors, are usedby a minority of larger companies, with a good base of symbolic capital. The results oncapital conversions indicate relatively easy conversion of economic capital into culturalcapital and symbolic capital, and less frequent use of economic capital to create socialcapital. Fresh insights into the entrepreneurs' perceptions provided by the study expandexisting knowledge about entrepreneurship within the computer programming industry,suggesting that it is an industry with huge potential for young talents without a personalfinancial base that is commonly considered a precondition for enteringentrepreneurship.