The creation of the FC Barcelona early competitive advantage from a new entrepreneurial history approach, 1899–1922

Abstract

The aim of this study is to show how an entrepreneurial project that identifies a future form of value may not be motivated by the search for personal financial gain. Based on the new entrepreneurial history framework, the paper analyzes the process by which FC Barcelona was created and consolidated, at a time when football was strictly amateur in nature. It was an entrepreneurial project deployed in a dynamic process based on trial and error characterized by three decisive entrepreneurial momentums: the creation of the club in 1899; its rebirth in 1908; and the construction of a large stadium in 1922. From uncertain beginnings, the club’s eventual consolidation led to long-term socio-economic change and presents the main characteristics of a Schumpeterian creative response since it was key in the introduction of a sport that changed the way in which leisure was consumed in Spain.