Social exchange theory of entrepreneurship
What is the social exchange theory of entrepreneurship? Social exchange theory regards trading relations as built on norms of reciprocity and mutual attraction (Emerson, 1981; De Clercq et al., 2010). Reciprocity is the exchange of privileges between parties on the basis of mutual trust. For instance, a lunch or round of drinks may be purchased by one individual, with the understanding that other will pay back the debt at some unspecified time. In extended reciprocity, the assumption is that the environment will pay it forward to ensure repayment, even if indirectly over time. Mutual attraction implies that one party is not predating on the other, that both parties that have something to gain. There is therefore an assumption of trust between the parties. For example, it has been observed that in traditional subsistence cultures, tribes will often donate their surpluses to neighboring tribes with no time bound expectations of repayment. Social exchange and entrepreneurship