Of mice, cats, and underdogs: a soft power-based view of the entrepreneurial firm

Hard power rests on control over material resources that can be used to coerce others, whereas soft power relies on attraction to influence how others think. Entrepreneurial ventures face hard power asymmetries when competing with legacy firms, making them underdogs given their well-documented liabilities of smallness and newness. This paper argues that an entrepreneurial venture might cultivate soft power when contesting legacy firms. We develop two key dimensions that shape the conditions under which entrepreneurial ventures may compete vis-à-vis a legacy firm—the control retained by the entrepreneurial venture and the adversarial stance adopted. Based on these dimensions, we develop a typology of entrepreneurial soft power strategies using four metaphors. Our typology identifies four mechanisms for cultivating soft power: illusion, solidarity, teasing, and courage. A soft power-based view of the entrepreneurial venture complements the resource-based view, as it can explain how entrepreneurial ventures might succeed despite a lack of hard power.