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Three waves and counting: the rising tide of contextualization in entrepreneurship research

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Abstract

Although the field was initially slow on the uptake, contextualization of entrepreneurship research has come a long way in recent years. Arguably, entrepreneurship demands contextualization more than many other fields, because not only is entrepreneurship broad and diverse in its scope but it is also frequently about the creation of differences. In this paper, we outline three recent and overlapping waves of contextualization in the entrepreneurship field. The discussion has moved from challenging the “standard” or Silicon Valley model of entrepreneurship by considering the why, what, and how of entrepreneurship (first wave) towards considering more subjective elements and the construction and enactment of contexts (second wave), through challenging us to deepen our theorizing by broadening the domain of entrepreneurship research (third wave). The articles in this special issue on “Entrepreneurship in Context” represent this third wave. Taken together, they illustrate entrepreneurial diversity and comprehend entrepreneurship and innovation as everyday activities. We end with a brief consideration of where the rising tide of contextualization may take the field during the next few years.

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Notes

  1. See Baker and Welter (2018) for a review of contextual entrepreneurship, also from interdisciplinary perspectives.

  2. This paper won the Greif award as the mostly highly cited entrepreneurship paper from 2011 during the six years after its publication.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Mittelstandsforschung (IfM) Bonn, Bonn, Germany

    Friederike Welter

  2. University of Siegen, Siegen, Germany

    Friederike Welter

  3. Rutgers University, Newark, NJ, USA

    Ted Baker

  4. University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business, Cape Town, South Africa

    Ted Baker

  5. University of Augsburg, Augsburg, Germany

    Katharine Wirsching

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  1. Friederike Welter
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Welter, F., Baker, T. & Wirsching, K. Three waves and counting: the rising tide of contextualization in entrepreneurship research. Small Bus Econ 52, 319–330 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-018-0094-5

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