Imprints of an Entrepreneur and Evolution of a Business Group, 1948–2010

In this article, we narrate a historical case study of a Turkish business group (BG) and engage in a dialogue with the existing theories that explain the transformation of BGs. The study builds on the multi-level theory of imprinting to illustrate how our focal group has been continually stamped by its founder's choices during sensitive times in its developmental trajectory. Collected evidence details how the entrepreneur's subsequent imprints are entrenched in the BG’s routines, simultaneously enabling and constraining its capabilities. By providing comprehensive evidence about the dynamic interplay among various endogenous and exogenous factors, we illustrate how abstract institutional conditions are reified in, and sometimes opposed by, agential action.