Abstract
In this thesis, we study the governance of the entrepreneurial firm in the seed stage. To do this, we structure our research in three chapters. The first chapter proposes a systemic approach to governance based on the consensual and processual perspective of a design opportunity and an approach based on a critical realistic epistemological posture and a constructivist attitude. The second chapter is based on the study of six companies that used reward-based crowdfunding during their seed phase. This chapter mobilizes the theoretical and methodological approaches developed in the previous chapter. The conceptual framework is based on an approach to governance based on the perspective of an opportunity to be conceived. Our results show that the realization of an RBCF campaign engages the entrepreneur in a learning process in which he learns, on the one hand, to manage and develop his project; and on the other hand, to manage and develop relationships. The third chapter is based on the study of two venture capitalists who tend to specialize in seed capital investment. Our results obtained that the seed venture capitalists manifest rationalities other than causal, in this case effectal and expansive. These rationalities underline the role of knowledge in its tacit and collective dimensions; and highlight intersubjective agreements that contribute to the emergence and seizing of the opportunity. More specifically, this opportunity represents a specific inflection point, prompted by knowledge of market evidence, and is the subject of a collective decision. A retroductive analysis of the venture capitalist - entrepreneur relationship shows that it is marked by this same inflection and heralds the strengthening of disciplinary levers.