Portfolio Entrepreneurship: A Multilevel Review of the Literature

Abstract

The successful identification and exploitation of commercial activities in a market place is demanding and subject to several potential pitfalls. However, some entrepreneurs choose to do so effectively on even more than one premise simultaneously. Prior research found evidence that many entrepreneurs deploy portfolio activities (Westhead et al. 2003), and that new high-growth ventures frequently arise through portfolio activities of portfolio entrepreneurs (Rosa and Scott 1999a). Furthermore, those portfolio ventures are more likely than both nascent and serial entrepreneurs to report high levels of exporting activities (Robson et al. 2012a), and innovation (Robson et al. 2012b). As a consequence, we need to understand what enables portfolio entrepreneurship (henceforth PE) to succeed. The literature has shown that PE is characterized by unique challenges related to the founding, growth and management of multiple ventures simultaneously (Carter and Ram, 2003). Therefore, it is critical to integrate existing knowledge on these challenges and ways that PE reconcile these challenges. However, prior work has most often focused on contrasting PE with other forms of entrepreneurship (Westhead et al. 2003). What we need is a dedicated review of the PE field that provides an understanding of antecedents, mechanisms and outcomes across the multiple levels within portfolio entrepreneurship.