Foundational Research In Entrepreneurship Studies

This book draws attention to the classic, seminal articles in entrepreneurship that have made profound contributions to the field’s emergence, development, and maturity. In each chapter, a classic is identified, ideas contained therein that are still relevant to the field are discussed, and subsequently follow-up research that is being conducted based on these ideas is highlighted, including possible areas of future research. Scholars will embrace this systematic effort to identify and reveal the contribution of classic articles in entrepreneurship research and their impact on subsequent scholarship.

In this book, one of the most highly recognized entrepreneurship scholars shares in a personal and readable way his rich experience and ideas on how entrepreneurship can be researched. Entrepreneurship is a phenomenon of tremendous societal importance. It is also an elusive phenomenon, which makes researching it fun, fascinating—and frustrating at times. In this fully updated edition, numerous real examples accompany the treatment of problems and solutions concerning design, sampling, operationalization and analysis. Researching Entrepreneurship is targeted primarily at research students and academics who are relatively new to research or to entrepreneurship research. This said, basic knowledge of research methods is assumed, and when foundational issues are discussed they are typically approach from a non-standard angle and/or with an eye to illuminate entrepreneurship-specific problems and solutions. This makes large parts of the contents potentially valuable for entrepreneurship scholars at any level of research proficiency. The book is also of interest to sophisticated, non-academic users with a professional interest in collecting and analyzing data from emerging and young ventures, and to those who make use of published entrepreneurship research. For example, analysts in marketing research or consultancy firms, business associations, statistical agencies and other government offices may find this book to be a valuable tool. Moreover, while the examples are derived from entrepreneurship research, the book provides a unique "experienced empirical researcher" (rather than "textbook method expert") treatment of issues that are of equal relevance across the social sciences. This goes for topics like the role of theory; research design; validity assessment; statistical inference, and replication. Entrepreneurship research has developed rapidly in the decade that has passed since the first edition. Therefore, all chapters have been comprehensively updated and many have been extended; sometimes to twice the original length. Two of the original chapters have been excluded to make room for entirely new chapters on “the Dependent Variable” and “The Entrepreneurship Nexus.” While retaining a unique, personal tone, the author uses examples and references that build on contributions from a large number of top entrepreneurship researchers.

The purpose of this book is to identify and analyze modern classics in entrepreneurship research with the goal of highlighting cutting-edge themes in the work of various scholars that are pushing the boundaries of the field, post 2000. As the entrepreneurship field matures, it is important to identify the novel contributions that will help shape the next decades of scholarship, by providing scholars with the concepts, frameworks, and approaches needed to help develop the new theories and practices of entrepreneurship. By focusing on emerging key contributions, this book takes a stance that sets it apart from other similar works by scholars that have focused only on existing themes rather than those that will characterize the relationship between entrepreneurship and new technological advances, growing inequalities, gender, diversity and inclusion, and socio-political shifts in the landscape of entrepreneurial ecosystems, allowing for critical and new conversations on entrepreneurship to take shape. This book will provide discussion on emergent themes and approaches that will continue to build the future of entrepreneurship as an exciting and rigorous academic discipline.

"‘Philosophy is inescapable’. This is the powerful mantra and call to action of this authoritative and informative collection of essays. Acting upon the conviction that empirical scrutiny only takes us so far in understanding the full nature of entrepreneurship, this text provides a set of thoughtful, and refreshing commentaries on the different ways in which philosophical assumptions shape entrepreneurship research. Entrepreneurship scholarship will be richer for the reading of it." Denise Elaine Fletcher, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg. "This book offers the reader a variety of philosophical ideas and approaches to spur reflection on taken for granted assumptions about what entrepreneurship is and the ways entrepreneurship scholars understand this phenomenon. The chapters in this book go beyond critiquing current ideas and perspectives, rather, the book opens up important lines of inquiry in such topic areas as: uncertainty, the imagination, social construction, critical realism, and the nature of failure. I expect that many of the insights from this book will provide directions for major avenues of entrepreneurship scholarship over the next decade. Scholars who want clues about the future direction of the entrepreneurship field would be wise to explore this book." William B. Gartner, Bertarelli Foundation Distinguished Professor of Family Entrepreneurship, Babson College, USA

early economic thinkers and classic works such as Cantillon (1755), Knight (1921), and Kirzner (1973). The paper opens by explaining how uncertainty and thus entrepreneurship disappeared from microeconomic theory as it became increasingly formalized (and stylized). It then goes on to bring the entrepreneur and entrepreneurial decision-making back into economic theory by focusing on the interrelationships among actors, knowledge, and perceived economic opportunities using a resource-based framework. The third paper in this section (Chapter 4) is by Foss and Klein, "Entrepreneurship and the Economic Theory of the Firm: Any Gains from Trade?" Foss and Klein strongly link theories of the firm to entrepreneurship, arguing a fundamental and intrinsic connection between the two. They, like Mahoney and Michael, explain how entrepreneurship became less important in economic models as the general equilibrium model became dominant. Foss and Klein ask: Does the entrepreneur need a firm? They focus on the judgment of the entrepreneur and suggest that this judgment is exercised through asset ownership and starting a firm. Foss and Klein further argue that it is through this notion of judgment that heterogeneous assets combine to meet future wants.

The chapters in The Handbook of Entrepreneurial Dynamics provide the rationale for questionnaires used in the Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics (PSED). The PSED is a research program that was initiated to provide systematic, reliable, and generalizable data on important features of the new business creation process. The PSED includes information on the proportion and characteristics of the adult population involved in efforts to start businesses, the activities and characteristics that comprise the nature of the business start-up process, and the proportion and characteristics of those business start-up efforts that actually become new businesses. The handbook also describes the PSED data collection process; provides documentation of the interview schedules, codebooks, data preparation and weighting scheme; as well as offers examples of how analyses of PSED data might be conducted. The authors identify specific measures that can be used to operationalize theory as well as provide evidence from the PSED data sets on these measures' reliability and validity.

Small Business: Creating Value Through Entrepreneurship offers a balanced approach to the core concepts of starting, managing, and working in a small business. An ideal textbook for undergraduate courses in small business management and entrepreneurship, the book offers a student-friendly pedagogical framework that blends foundational research on small business with the real-world practice of business ownership. Relevant examples are provided throughout the text, bringing key concepts to life while providing a realistic view of what it takes to create a successful and sustainable small business. Organized into five streamlined sections—a small business overview, paths to small business ownership, financial and legal issues, ways to grow a small business, and discussion of the “Entrepreneur’s Dilemma”—the text offers a diverse range of relatable examples drawn from both actual businesses and from depictions of entrepreneurship in popular media. Each clear and accessible chapter features discussion questions, mini-case studies, further reading lists, and color visual displays designed to enhance the learning experience and strengthen student engagement and comprehension.

Entrepreneurship is a phenomenon of tremendous societal importance. It is also an elusive phenomenon, and researching entrepreneurship is therefore fun, fascinating and frustrating at times. In Researching Entrepreneurship, Per Davidsson, one of the most highly recognized entrepreneurship scholars shares in a personal and readable way his rich experience and ideas on how entrepreneurship can or should be researched. After a comprehensive treatment of entrepreneurship as societal phenomenon and scholarly domain, the core chapters of the book discuss design, sampling, operationalization and analysis issues on several levels of analysis: individual, venture, firm, industry, region and nation. The book is targeted at doctoral students and other relative newcomers to the field of entrepreneurship research. However, taking a fresh, reflective perspective and looking beyond research conventions, it should provide potential for inspiration and food for thought also for experienced entrepreneurship researchers.