Title: Entrepreneurial piracy through strategic deception: the 'make, buy, or steal' decision

Authors: Thomas G. Pittz; Terry R. Adler

Addresses: Department of Management, New Mexico State University, MSC 3DJ, Las Cruces, NM 88003, USA ' Department of Management, New Mexico State University, MSC 3DJ, Las Cruces, NM 88003, USA

Abstract: In this paper, we explore the antecedents of entrepreneurial piracy through a case study approach involving the move of the National Basketball Association's (NBA's) Seattle Supersonics to Oklahoma City (OKC). The move of the Supersonics highlights an aspect of organisational strategy where existing theory is deficient in explaining the phenomena regarding firm boundaries and resource acquisition. Specifically, we argue in this paper for an expansion of the traditional 'make or buy' decision to include a 'steal' option. Several propositions are offered to suggest that the context in which this act of entrepreneurial piracy occurred could be generalised to other cases of artificial market constraints on valuable resources and includes the features of information compactedness, opportunism, bounded rationality, and strategic deception.

Keywords: opportunism; bounded rationality; information compactedness; make or buy; steal; entrepreneurial piracy; firm boundaries; strategic deception; legal piracy; uncertainty; business ethics; ethical decision making; strategy; strategic planning; entrepreneurship; case study; National Basketball Association; NBA; Seattle Supersonics.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2014.064270

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2014 Vol.22 No.4, pp.466 - 481

Published online: 06 Sep 2014 *

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