Marshaling resources to form small new ventures: Toward a more holistic understanding of entrepreneurial support

This article makes two contributions to our understanding of the core entrepreneurial activity of assembling resources to pursue an opportunity. First, a conceptual framework is presented to organize the research on resource mobilization. Second, a study is presented based upon interviews with a random sample of 48 entrepreneurs to identify the supporters whom the entrepreneurs considered to have been key to their success and the resources obtained from these individuals. Results indicate that maximizing the overall effectiveness of resource combinations is a complex undertaking involving trade-offs between the quantity and quality of available resources and the efficiency versus effectiveness of supporters.