Entrepreneurship as Method: Open Questions for an Entrepreneurial Future

Abstract

In this essay, we outline the provocative argument that in the realm of human affairs there exists an “entrepreneurial method” analogous to the scientific method spelled out by Francis Bacon and others with regard to the natural realm. We then suggest a series of open questions that we believe will help future scholars spell out the contents of such a method and ways in which it can be put to work in the design and achievement of socioeconomic ends. At least one normative implication of accepting the argument would be to teach entrepreneurship not only to entrepreneurs but to everyone, as a necessary and useful skill and an important way of reasoning about the world.