From Employee to Owner: Conceptualizing Ownership Transition Through Structured Business Systems
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.66203/directiva.01201Keywords:
ownership transition, structured entrepreneurship, franchising, psychological ownership, entrepreneurial legitimation, business ownershipAbstract
Entrepreneurship research has traditionally emphasized venture creation as the primary pathway through which individuals become entrepreneurs, resulting in limited understanding of how business ownership emerges through structured organizational arrangements. This limitation is increasingly important as franchising and other structured business systems provide alternative pathways that enable individuals to transition from employee status to business ownership while benefiting from established organizational resources, legitimacy, and capabilities. Addressing this theoretical gap, this conceptual paper develops the Ownership Transition Framework (OTF) to explain how structured business systems facilitate ownership acquisition and entrepreneurial development. Drawing on entrepreneurship theory, franchising research, organizational capability literature, legitimacy theory, and psychological ownership theory, the framework conceptualizes ownership transition as a multi-stage developmental process consisting of ownership accessibility, capability acquisition, entrepreneurial legitimation, ownership internalization, and ownership expansion. The proposed framework extends existing entrepreneurship literature by repositioning ownership formation as a distinct entrepreneurial outcome, reconceptualizing franchising as an ownership creation mechanism, and introducing structured entrepreneurship as an alternative pathway between conventional employment and independent venture creation. The study contributes an integrative theoretical perspective that provides a foundation for future empirical research on ownership formation, entrepreneurial participation, and business ownership development.
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