Co-evolution, opportunity seeking and institutional change: entrepreneurship and the Indian telecommunications industry, 1923-2009

This paper demonstrates the importance for entrepreneurship of historical contexts and processes, and the co-evolution of institutions, practices, discourses and cultural norms. Drawing on discourse and institutional theories, it develops a model of the entrepreneurial field, and applies this in analysing the rise to global prominence of the Indian telecommunications industry. The article uses entrepreneurial life histories to show how various discourses and discursive processes ultimately worked to generate change and the creation of new business opportunities. It suggests that entrepreneurship involves more than individual acts of business creation, but also implies collective endeavours to shape the future direction of the entrepreneurial field.