The evolving domain of entrepreneurship research

TLDR

Entrepreneurship research has rapidly expanded across diverse disciplines, prompting a need to define its evolving domain and address specific challenges such as those posed by the Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research. The article aims to chart the evolution of entrepreneurship research, propose an analytical framework for its domain, and highlight the need for rigorous applied work and robust theoretical models. The authors introduce an analytical framework that delineates elements, levels of analysis, and contextual processes to structure the entrepreneurship research domain. The review shows the field’s current positioning relative to related disciplines and identifies future priorities, notably the development of a rigorous dynamic theory linking entrepreneurship to economic growth and human welfare.

Abstract

Research on entrepreneurship has flourished in recent years and is evolving rapidly. This article explores the history of entrepreneurship research, how the research domain has evolved, and its current status as an academic field. The need to concretize these issues stems partly from a general interest in defining the current research domain and partly from the more specific tasks confronting the prize committee of the Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research. Entrepreneurship has developed in many sub-fields within several disciplines—primarily economics, management/business administration, sociology, psychology, economic and cultural anthropology, business history, strategy, marketing, finance, and geography—representing a variety of research traditions, perspectives, and methods. We present an analytical framework that organizes our thinking about the domain of entrepreneurship research by specifying elements, levels of analysis, and the process/context. An overview is provided of where the field stands today and how it is positioned relative to the existing disciplines and new research fields upon which it draws. Areas needed for future progress are highlighted, particularly the need for a rigorous dynamic theory of entrepreneurship that relates entrepreneurial activity to economic growth and human welfare. Moreover, applied work based on more careful design as well as on theoretical models yielding more credible and robust estimates seems also highly warranted.