Entrepreneurship as a subversive activity: How can entrepreneurs destroy in the process of creative destruction

Abstract

This article reverses the traditional perspective on creation in entrepreneurship: rather than ask how entrepreneurs create, we focus instead on how they destroy. Using an abductive approach, we surmise that to create breakthrough innovations, entrepreneurs engage in subversive activities that enable them to destroy some of the rules and values preventing their project from expanding. Subversion rests on four components: (1) an interplay between three actors – activists, a system and the masses; (2) the intent of the activists to destroy the system; (3) their use of efficient techniques and (4) their provoking of a public scandal. By grounding our analysis in the case studies of Hustler and PayPal, two emblems of entrepreneurship in the United States of America, we show how the destructive intent of entrepreneurs has a structuring role in entrepreneurial ventures. Far from defending a romantic vision of entrepreneurship, we show that destruction, which is an essential component of creation, can be managed and harnessed through subversive techniques.