Toward a Theory of Purpose-Driven Urban Entrepreneurship

Inspired by Shrivastava and Kennelly, we aim to extend theory on place-based entrepreneurship by highlighting the uniqueness of cities and the interplay between purpose-driven entrepreneurs and the urban places where they operate. This article sets out to conceptualize a middle-range theoretical framework and establish the boundary conditions for purpose-driven urban entrepreneurship based on a combination of inductive reasoning and deductive theorizing. We draw from sustainability and territorial development literatures and the complexity science view of entrepreneurship to establish units, laws of interaction, boundaries, and system states of purpose-driven urban entrepreneurship across three geospatial layers, and elaborate a complexity model comprising sources of opportunities, context, and venturing process. We conclude with potential avenues for further theoretical and empirical development of the purpose-driven urban entrepreneurship construct.