The Role of human capital in enabling institutional entrepreneurial acts

Abstract

By analyzing the survey data from 346 individuals using structural equation modeling, the thesis explores the role of human capital in enabling individuals to carry out acts in an organizational field which are not determined by the existing structure but rather by individuals' free will (referred to as individuals' agency), often resulting in an institutional change as a result of field renewal and transition. Such acts are classified as institutional entrepreneurial acts.

The results demonstrate that human capital does enable certain individuals to carry out institutional entrepreneurial acts. However, the relationship is not direct but rather it is mediated by their perception of the field in terms of their alertness to institutional change opportunities and their self-efficacy of envisioning field changes. It is found that individuals whose human capital profile has higher research or field-management expertise component are more likely to perform institutional entrepreneurial acts, mediated by their heightened alertness and self-efficacy; whereas individuals whose human capital is mainly built on business know-how and industrial experience lack the agency institutional entrepreneurial acts, given their insignificant alertness and self-efficacy. Thus, individuals having research or field management expertise are more likely to engage in institutional acts, which in aggregate contribute to an institutional change.

Moreover, the thesis also informs about the novel approach of empirically analyzing the institutional entrepreneurship at the level of individuals thereby providing a methodological basis to study micro-foundations of institutional entrepreneurship both qualitatively and quantitatively.