Toward a Dynamic Learning Perspective of Entrepreneurship

TLDR

Entrepreneurial learning is poorly understood, prompting this article to map and extend current thinking on how entrepreneurs learn. The article introduces a dynamic learning perspective of entrepreneurship, building on dominant theories and proposing three interrelated elements—dynamic temporal phases, interrelated processes, and overarching characteristics. It synthesizes empirical and conceptual work across adult, management, and individual learning literature to develop a robust, integrated thematic conceptualization of entrepreneurial learning. The article demonstrates that applying a learning lens opens new research avenues in entrepreneurship.

Abstract

This conceptual article introduces a dynamic learning perspective of entrepreneurship that builds upon existing “dominant” theoretical approaches to understanding entrepreneurial activity. As many aspects of entrepreneurial learning remain poorly understood, this article maps out and extends current boundaries of thinking regarding how entrepreneurs learn. It presents key conclusions from emergent empirical and conceptual work on the subject and synthesizes a broad range of contributory adult, management, and individual learning literature to develop a robust and integrated thematic conceptualization of entrepreneurial learning. Three distinctive, interrelated elements of entrepreneurial learning are proposed—dynamic temporal phases, interrelated processes, and overarching characteristics. The article concludes by demonstrating how a “learning lens” can be applied to create further avenues for research in entrepreneurship from a learning perspective.