Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
SpringerLink
Log in

Entrepreneurship as a Research Domain

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Researching Entrepreneurship

Part of the book series: International Studies in Entrepreneurship ((ISEN,volume 33))

  • 2765 Accesses

Abstract

What is entrepreneurship research? Entrepreneurship as a research domain cannot be restricted to proven cases of entrepreneurship as defined in Chap. 1. This is because in order to understand the societal phenomenon as defined in Chap. 1, the research domain needs to understand also the choice not to engage in entrepreneurship and the reasons for failure to succeed at it. Combining ideas from prior literature, this chapter develops and discusses a delineation of the entrepreneurship research domain, focusing on the process of (completed or aborted) emergence of new economic ventures across organizational contexts.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 69.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    That’s what I said in 2003. Although trait explanations will never be my favorite, I should clarify that subsequent meta-analyses (e.g., Collins, Hanges, & Locke, 2004; Rauch & Frese, 2007; Zhao & Seibert, 2006) and—ironically—Shane’s own, recent work on the genetic factor in entrepreneurship (Nicolaou et al., 2011; Nicolaou et al., 2008) have to some degree reinstated stable person characteristics as explanations of entrepreneurial behavior and success.

  2. 2.

    Please don’t counterargue that I misinterpret Kirzner on the basis that in later works Israel Kirzner shows a greater understanding or appreciation of the dynamic and uncertain elements of the economy (Kirzner, 2009; Pollack, Vanepps, & Hayes, 2012). “Kirzner (1973)” is a theoretical argument, not a flesh-and-blood individual, and for all its merits, that argument is relatively insensitive to issues of time and uncertainty.

  3. 3.

    At the time of writing under review for Journal of Prestigious Conceptual Work, but at the time of reading possibly appearing in Journal of Entrepreneurship & Bicycle Repair (credit to Norris Krueger for this wonderful, generic title for journals-no-one-reads-and-which-you-don’t-even-want-to-be-seen-in).

  4. 4.

    The underlying empirics were not presented in Sarasvathy (2001), presumably because in the absurd world of academic publishing, basing one’s argument on armchair reasoning is sometimes more accepted than is basing it on careful and innovative empirical work that has visible warts.

References

  • Ács, Z. J., & Audretsch, D. B. (2003). Editor’s introduction. In Z. J. Ács & D. B. Audretsch (Eds.), Handbook of entrepreneurship research. Dordrecht, NL: Kluwer Academic.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ács, Z. J., & Audretsch, D. B. (Eds.). (2010). Handbook of entrepreneurship research: An interdisciplinary survey and introduction (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Springer-Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alvarez, S. A., Barney, J. B., & Anderson, P. (2013). Forming and exploiting opportunities: The implications of discovery and creation processes for entrepreneurial and organizational research. Organization Science, 24, 301–317.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Amit, R., & Zott, C. (2001). Value drivers in e-business. Strategic Management Journal, 22, 493–520.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ardichvili, A., Cardozo, R., & Ray, S. (2003). A theory of entrepreneurial opportunity identification and development. Journal of Business Venturing, 18(1), 105–123.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baker, T., & Nelson, R. E. (2005). Creating something from nothing: Resource construction through entrepreneurial bricolage. Administrative Science Quarterly, 50(3), 329–366.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baker, T., & Pollock, T. G. (2007). Making the marriage work: The benefits of strategy’s takeover of entrepreneurship for strategic organization. Strategic Organization, 5(3), 297–312.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baron, R. A. (2008). The role of affect in the entrepreneurial process. Academy of Management Review, 33(2), 328–340.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baumol, W. J. (1990). Entrepreneurship: Productive, unproductive and destructive. Journal of Political Economy, 98(5), 893–921.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bhave, M. P. (1994). A process model of entrepreneurial venture creation. Journal of Business Venturing, 9, 223–242.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brush, C. G., Greene, P. G., & Hart, M. M. (2001). From initial idea to unique advantage: The entrepreneurial challenge of constructing a resource-base. Academy of Management Executive, 15(1), 64–78.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carter, N. M., Gartner, W. B., & Reynolds, P. D. (1996). Exploring start-up event sequences. Journal of Business Venturing, 11, 151–166.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Collins, C. J., Hanges, P. J., & Locke, E. A. (2004). The relationship of achievement motivation to entrepreneurial behavior: A meta-analysis. Human Performance, 17(1), 95–117.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crawford, G. C., & McKelvey, B. (2010). Using simulation experiments to build and test entrepreneurship theories. Paper presented at the BCERC conference, Lausanne, Switzerland. (A summary is available in Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research, 30, and downloadable from http://digitalknowledge.babson.edu/fer/vol30/iss20/3).

    Google Scholar 

  • Davidsson, P. (2002). What entrepreneurship research can do for business and policy practice. International Journal of Entrepreneurship Education, 1(1), 5–24.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davidsson, P. (2003). The domain of entrepreneurship research: Some suggestions. In J. Katz & D. Shepherd (Eds.), Advances in entrepreneurship, firm emergence and growth (Cognitive approaches to entrepreneurship research, Vol. 6, pp. 315–372). Oxford, UK: Elsevier/JAI Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davidsson, P. (2015). Entrepreneurial opportunities and the entrepreneurship nexus: A reconceptualization. Journal of Business Venturing. doi:10.1016/j.jbusvent.2015.01.002.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davidsson, P., Hunter, E., & Klofsten, M. (2006). Institutional forces: The invisible hand that shapes venture ideas? International Small Business Journal, 24(2), 115–131.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davidsson, P., & Wiklund, J. (2001). Levels of analysis in entrepreneurship research: Current practice and suggestions for the future. Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, 25(4), 81–99.

    Google Scholar 

  • Delmar, F., & Shane, S. A. (2004). Legitimating first: Organizing activities and the survival of new ventures. Journal of Business Venturing, 19, 385–410.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dimov, D. (2007). Beyond the single‐person, single‐insight attribution in understanding entrepreneurial opportunities. Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, 31(5), 713–731.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dimov, D. (2011). Grappling with the unbearable elusiveness of entrepreneurial opportunities. Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, 35(1), 57–81.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eliasson, G. (1991). Modeling the experimentally organized economy: Complex dynamics in an empirical micro-macro model of endogenous economic growth. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 16, 153–182.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fiet, J. O., & Patel, P. C. (2008). Prescriptive entrepreneurship. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Foss, N. J., & Klein, P. G. (2012). Organizing entrepreneurial judgment: A new approach to the firm. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Gartner, W. B. (1988). “Who is an Entrepreneur?” is the wrong question. American Small Business Journal, 12(4), 11–31.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gartner, W. B. (1990). What are we talking about when we are talking about entrepreneurship? Journal of Business Venturing, 5, 15–28.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gartner, W. B. (1993). Words lead to deeds: Towards an organizational emergence vocabulary. Journal of Business Venturing, 8, 231–239.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gartner, W. B. (2001). Is there an elephant in entrepreneurship research? Blind assumptions in theory development. Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, 25(4), 27–39.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gartner, W. B., & Carter, N. (2003). Entrepreneurial behavior and firm organizing processes. In Z. J. Ács & D. B. Audretsch (Eds.), Handbook of entrepreneurship research. Dordrecht, NL: Kluwer Academic.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gartner, W. B., Carter, N. M., & Reynolds, P. D. (2010). Entrepreneurial behavior: Firm organizing processes. In Z. Ács & D. B. Audretsch (Eds.), Handbook of entrepreneurship research (pp. 99–127). New York, NY: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Gartner, W. B., Davidsson, P., & Zahra, S. A. (2006). Are you talking to me? The nature of community in entrepreneurship scholarship. Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, 30(3), 321–331.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gatewood, R. D., Shaver, K. G., & Gartner, W. B. (1995). A longitudinal study of cognitive factors influencing start-up behaviors and success at new venture creation. Journal of Business Venturing, 10, 371–391.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • George, G., & Bock, A. J. (2011). The business model in practice and its implications for entrepreneurship research. Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, 35(1), 83–111.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gordon, S. R. (2012). Dimensions of the venture creation process: Amount, dynamics, and sequences of action in nascent entrepreneurship. Doctoral dissertation, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grégoire, D. A., & Shepherd, D. A. (2012). Technology-market combinations and the identification of entrepreneurial opportunities: An investigation of the opportunity-individual nexus. Academy of Management Journal, 55(4), 753–785.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hansen, D. J., Shrader, R., & Monllor, J. (2011). Defragmenting definitions of entrepreneurial opportunity. Journal of Small Business Management, 49(2), 283–304.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harper, D. A. (2008). Towards a theory of entrepreneurial teams. Journal of Business Venturing, 23(6), 613–626.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hitt, M. A., Ireland, R. D., Sirmon, D. G., & Trahms, C. A. (2011). Strategic entrepreneurship: Creating value for individuals, organizations and society. Academy of Management Perspectives, 25(2), 57–75.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ireland, R. D., Hitt, M. A., & Sirmon, D. G. (2003). A model of strategic entrepreneurship: The construct and its dimensions. Journal of Management, 29(6), 963–989.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Karlsson, T. (2009). Emergence and development of entrepreneurship research 1989–2007: Keywords and collocations. Working Paper 2009–7. Lund, Sweden: School of Economics and Management, Lund University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Katz, J., & Gartner, W. B. (1988). Properties of emerging organizations. Academy of Management Review, 13(3), 429–441.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirzner, I. M. (1973). Competition and entrepreneurship. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirzner, I. M. (2009). The alert and creative entrepreneur: A clarification. Small Business Economics, 32(2), 145–152.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Knight, F. (1921). Risk, uncertainty and profit. New York, NY: Hougthon Mifflin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kraaijenbrink, J., Spender, J. C., & Groen, A. J. (2010). The resource-based view: A review and assessment of its critiques. Journal of Management, 36(1), 349–372.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levie, J., Don, G., & Leleux, B. (2011). The new venture mortality myth. In K. Hindle & K. Klyver (Eds.), Handbook of research on new venture creation (pp. 194–215). Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Liao, J., Welsch, H., & Tan, W. L. (2005). Venture gestation paths of nascent entrepreneurs: Exploring the temporal patterns. Journal of High Technology Management Research, 16(1), 1–22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lichtenstein, B. B., Carter, N. M., Dooley, K. J., & Gartner, W. B. (2007). Complexity dynamics of nascent entrepreneurship. Journal of Business Venturing, 22(2), 236–261.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Low, M. B. (2001). The adolescence of entrepreneurship research: specification of purpose. Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, 25, 17–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • McMullen, J. S., & Dimov, D. (2013). Time and the entrepreneurial journey: The problems and promise of studying entrepreneurship as a process. Journal of Management Studies, 50(8), 1481–1512.

    Google Scholar 

  • McMullen, J. S., & Shepherd, D. (2006). Entrepreneurial action and the role of uncertainty in the theory of the entrepreneur. Academy of Management Review, 31(1), 132–152.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nicolaou, N., Shane, S. A., Adi, G., Mangino, M., & Harris, J. (2011). A polymorphism associated with entrepreneurship: evidence from dopamine receptor candidate genes. Small Business Economics, 36(2), 151–155.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nicolaou, N., Shane, S. A., Cherkas, L., Hunkin, J., & Spector, T. D. (2008). Is the tendency to engage in entrepreneurship genetic? Management Science, 54(1), 167–179.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pe’er, A., & Vertinsky, I. (2008). Firm exits as a determinant of new entry: Is there evidence of local creative destruction? Journal of Business Venturing, 23(3), 280–306.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pollack, J. M., Vanepps, E. M., & Hayes, A. F. (2012). The moderating role of social ties on entrepreneurs’ depressed affect and withdrawal intentions in response to economic stress. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 33(6), 789–810.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rauch, A., & Frese, M. (2007). Let’s put the person back into entrepreneurship research: A meta-analysis on the relationship between business owners’ personality traits, business creation, and success. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 16(4), 353–385.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reynolds, P. D. (2007). New firm creation in the United States: A PSED I overview. Foundations and Trends in Entrepreneurship, 3(1), 1–150.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Riggio, H. R., & Garcia, A. L. (2009). The power of situations: Jonestown and the fundamental attribution error. Teaching of Psychology, 36(2), 108–112.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rogers, E. M. (1995). Diffusion of innovations (4th ed.). New York, NY: The Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ross, L. (1977). The intuitive psychologist and his shortcomings: Distortions in the attribution process. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 10, pp. 173–240). Orlando, FL: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ruef, M., Aldrich, H. E., & Carter, N. M. (2003). The structure of organizational founding teams: Homophily, strong ties, and isolation among U.S. entrepreneurs. American Sociological Review, 68(2), 195–222.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Samuelsson, M., & Davidsson, P. (2009). Does venture opportunity variation matter? Investigating systematic process differences between innovative and imitative new ventures. Small Business Economics, 33(2), 229–255.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Santos, F. M., & Eisenhardt, K. M. (2009). Constructing markets and shaping boundaries: Entrepreneurial power in nascent fields. Academy of Management Journal, 52(4), 643–671.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sarasvathy, S. D. (2000). Seminar on research perspectives in entrepreneurship. Journal of Business Venturing, 15, 1–57.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sarasvathy, S. D. (2001). Causation and effectuation: Towards a theoretical shift from economic inevitability to entrepreneurial contingency. Academy of Management Review, 26(2), 243–288.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sarasvathy, S. D. (2008). Effectuation: Elements of entrepreneurial expertise. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Sarasvathy, S. D., & Dew, N. (2005). New market creation through transformation. Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 15(5), 533–565.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sarasvathy, S. D., Dew, N., Velamuri, R., & Venkataraman, S. (2003). Three views of entrepreneurial opportunity. In Z. J. Ács & D. B. Audretsch (Eds.), Handbook of entrepreneurship research. Dordrecht, NL: Kluwer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schumpeter, J. A. (1934). The theory of economic development. Cambridge, UK: MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shane, S. A. (2003). A general theory of entrepreneurship: The individual-opportunity nexus. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Shane, S. A. (2012). Reflections on the 2010 AMR Decade Award: Delivering on the promise of entrepreneurship as a field of research. Academy of Management Review, 37(1), 10–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shane, S. A., & Eckhardt, J. (2003). The individual-opportunity nexus. In Z. J. Ács & D. B. Audretsch (Eds.), Handbook of entrepreneurship research (pp. 161–194). Dordrecht, NL: Kluwer Academic.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shane, S. A., & Venkataraman, S. (2000). The promise of entrepreneurship as a field of research. Academy of Management Review, 25(1), 217–226.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shane, S. A., & Venkataraman, S. (2001). Entrepreneurship as a field of research: A response to Zahra and Dess, Singh, and Erikson. Academy of Management Review, 26(1), 13–16.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shepherd, D. A., Covin, J. G., & Kuratko, D. F. (2009). Project failure from corporate entrepreneurship: Managing the grief process. Journal of Business Venturing, 24(6), 588–600.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Short, J. C., Ketchen, D. J., Jr., Shook, C. L., & Ireland, R. D. (2010). The concept of “opportunity” in entrepreneurship research: Past accomplishments and future challenges. Journal of Management, 36(1), 40–65.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sorenson, O., & Stuart, T. E. (2008). Entrepreneurship: A field of dreams? Academy of Management Annals, 2(1), 517–543.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ucbasaran, D., Westhead, P., & Wright, M. (2001). The focus of entrepreneurship research: Contextual and process issues. Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, 25(4), 57–80.

    Google Scholar 

  • Venkataraman, S. (1997). The distinctive domain of entrepreneurship research: An editor’s perspective. In J. Katz & J. Brockhaus (Eds.), Advances in entrepreneurship, firm emergence, and growth (Vol. 3, pp. 119–138). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Venkataraman, S., Sarasvathy, S. D., Dew, N., & Forster, W. R. (2012). Reflections on the 2010 AMR Decade Award: Whither the promise? Moving forward with entrepreneurship as a science of the artificial. Academy of Management Review, 37(1), 21–33.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wennberg, K., Wiklund, J., DeTienne, D. R., & Cardon, M. S. (2010). Reconceptualizing entrepreneurial exit: Divergent exit routes and their drivers. Journal of Business Venturing, 25(4), 361–375.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • West, G. P. (2007). Collective cognition: When entrepreneurial teams, not individuals, make decisions. Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, 31(1), 77–102.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wiklund, J., Davidsson, P., Audretsch, D. B., & Karlsson, C. (2011). The future of entrepreneurship research. Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, 35(1), 1–9.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wiklund, J., & Shepherd, D. A. (2008). Portfolio entrepreneurship: Habitual and novice founders, new entry, and mode of organizing. Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, 32(4), 701–725.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yang, T., & Aldrich, H. E. (2012). Out of sight but not out of mind: Why failure to account for left truncation biases research on failure rates. Journal of Business Venturing, 27(4), 477–492.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zahra, S. A., & Dess, G. G. (2001). Entrepreneurship as a field of research: Encouraging dialogue and debate. Academy of Management Review, 26(1), 8–10.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zahra, S. A., & Wright, M. (2011). Entrepreneurship’s next act. Academy of Management Perspectives, 25(4), 67–83.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhao, H., & Seibert, S. E. (2006). The big five personality dimensions and entrepreneurial status: A meta-analytical review. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91(2), 259.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zott, C., Amit, R., & Massa, L. (2011). The business model: Recent developments and future research. Journal of Management, 37(4), 1019–1042.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. QUT Business School, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Per Davidsson

  2. Jönköping International Business School, Jönköping, Sweden

    Per Davidsson

Authors
  1. Per Davidsson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Davidsson, P. (2016). Entrepreneurship as a Research Domain. In: Researching Entrepreneurship. International Studies in Entrepreneurship, vol 33. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26692-3_2

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation