Sticky ties among rivals for entrepreneurial leadership

Purpose We explore the social structure of an autocratic, entrepreneurial organization, with a focus on the enduring rivalry between its formal leader and a key employee. Design/methodology/approach This is a re-study of Team Entrepreneurship (Stewart, 1989), with different eyes and methods, using ethnographic data for social network analysis (SNA). Findings With an analysis of structural equivalence, multiplexity, Simmelian triples and intermediation, this study shows how apparently conflicting social networks—collective entrepreneurship, antagonism and analytical management—can co-exist and that the main rivalrous tie is persistent or “sticky”. Research limitations/implications Due to deep fieldwork access and a site of managerial rivalry, the findings would have damaged careers, without a wait of many years to make the findings public. The specific context also limits external validity. The strengths of this paper are methodological and conceptual. Originality/value This is a rare observational study of entrepreneurial leadership and a rare study in an organization that uses ethnographic data as inputs for SNA matrixes. It shows important distinctions between inferences from observations compared with SNA.