As soon as the individual or the small team is totally committed to the process, they are embarked in the entrepreneurial system and have to deal with questions related to the survival/development of the fledgling company. These questions arise from activities that are indispensable to the progression of the project and which are accomplished in specific conditions and contexts depending on the situation. As noted previously, there is permanent tension between available resources and the resources required for the project to succeed (Stevenson and Jarillo 1990). These resources are insufficient at all levels, and the permanence of these tensions implies specific behaviours and practices for the entrepreneur. The commitment of resources within an entrepreneurial process therefore happens gradually, which also implies that after each activity, or during each activity, the project may be abandoned, or reformulated, resulting in a step back.

In this chapter, we will first examine the main questions raised during this survival/development phase. Secondly, we will present three perspectives from the field of sociology that provide theoretical frameworks better to understand the issues and dynamics at work during this phase. These three perspectives are the ‘théorie de la traduction et de l'intéressement’ (interest generation and translation theory), the theory of social networks in section, and finally, Anthony Giddens' structuration theory. These theories are complementary, and can be used either independently or combined, given the variety and heterogeneity of situations and research questions.