Entrepreneurship research

Abstract

Purpose

With the rapid emergence of scholarly thinking and analysis about entrepreneurship has come a multiplicity of approaches, emanating from different academic traditions. This has resulted in an academic field that is complex and heterogeneous with respect to approaches, methodologies and even the understanding about what exactly constitutes entrepreneurship. The purpose of this paper is to try to reconcile the different approaches and views about entrepreneurship that are prevalent in the literature.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper takes the form of a literature review.

Findings

The paper finds that while such heterogeneity can be the source of a nuanced and at times contractor research field, it is also the source of richness and diversity that has contributed to making the emerging field so dynamic.

Practical implications

The field of entrepreneurship should remain committed to a diversity of approaches, understandings and methodologies about what constitutes entrepreneurial activity.

Originality/value

The value of the paper is that it presents a coherent framework that reconciles disparate approaches and understandings about what actually constitutes entrepreneurship.

Citation

Audretsch, D. (2012), "Entrepreneurship research", Management Decision, Vol. 50 No. 5, pp. 755-764. https://doi.org/10.1108/00251741211227384