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The purpose of this research paper is to investigate opposing versions of entrepreneurship and to introduce a metaphor to stimulate a dialogue about the diversity and complexity of enterprising communities.

A discourse framework is developed in order to describe dominating – and even new and challenging – versions of entrepreneurship. The discourse analysis is presented in three steps: the introductory text to a handbook of entrepreneurship is deconstructed to expose some basic assumptions of entrepreneurship; drawing on several research articles, some dominating versions of entrepreneurship are analysed; drawing on research articles which have recently been published in two special issues in entrepreneurship journals, alternative versions of entrepreneurship are analysed.

This paper compares three dominating and three alternative versions of entrepreneurship. All the versions are related to the idea of entrepreneurship as a story of creation for our times, where it is implied that entrepreneurship appears to be something inherently good for society and for people. The versions share a common denominator but are also distinguished by different ontological and epistemological assumptions that make a dialogue between the versions problematic.

The results of this research paper have obvious limitations because of the methodology employed and due to the limited number of texts analysed.

The concept of a discursive web to analyse the world of entrepreneurship is introduced.

Book review by Lori Wagner Snyder. Steyaert, Chris and Daniel Hjorth, eds. Entrepreneurship as Social Change. Cheltenham, UK and Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2006. ISBN 9781847206275

In this paper, the authors present an empirical framework that incorporates different factors of the impact of COVID-19 on small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in La Rioja, Spain, in relation to the value chain, gender and family business and allows the evaluation of these impacts on the SMEs' outcomes.

The authors conduct exploratory research based on phone interviews with 329 business managers from SMEs in La Rioja (Spain), from June 1 to June 30 2021, using ordinary least squares linear regression and matching procedures to test the study hypotheses.

The results show that the impact of COVID-19 related to primary activities in adding value, such as inbound logistics, operations and marketing, have a positive influence on innovation outcomes in SMEs, as do female managers. Family SMEs present poorer innovation outcomes.

At the organizational level, this paper may be of interest to management, and at the national and regional levels to policymakers, since it could help to develop policies that support SMEs' sourcing, operations and marketing in order to prepare for potential value chain disruptions. Additionally, this research may help decision-makers to foster and promote innovation in SMEs as a way of ensuring their resilience.

In this paper, the authors provide novel evidence about the effect of COVID-19 in SMEs. Moreover, it has been shown that the COVID-19 pandemic has triggered the redefinition of supply chains at the organizational level.

The aim of this systematic literature review (SLR) is to map out the current state of the research on collaboration in the context of social entrepreneurship organisations (SEOs), synthesise this line of research and advance a research agenda.

A SLR of 40 scientific articles found in the Scopus and Web of Science databases built the foundation for an analysis of the state-of-the-art of the research addressing the interplay of SEOs and collaboration. This area of research has been very recent since the selected articles have been published since 2005 and more than half of which have appeared since 2017.

The findings suggest that collaboration is increasingly perceived as a crucial entrepreneurial activity and process for SEOs. The results indicate that collaboration is a vibrant and rapidly growing line of research which spans different fields of study, contexts, varied theoretical perspectives and multiple units of analysis. Furthermore, a total of five key research themes are identified pertaining to collaboration in the context of SEOs, such as motivations and strategies of collaboration, its antecedents, the interplay of institutional logics and tensions arising in collaboration, the impact of collaboration on the mission of SEOs and collaborative processes and practices.

To lend structure to this fragmented field of inquiry, this study systematically reviews and synthesises research on collaboration in the context of SEOs. In doing so, the study reveals that this line of research is under-researched, offering a significant scope for further scrutiny.

Government attention to women’s entrepreneurship has increased in the past two decades; however, there are few cross-cultural studies to inform policy development. This paper aims to draw on gender and institutional theory to report on the status of female-focused small and medium-sized enterprises/entrepreneurship policies and to ask how – and to what extent – do women’s entrepreneurship policies differ among countries?

A common methodological approach is used to identify gaps in the policy-practice nexus.

The study highlights countries where policy is weak but practice is strong, and vice versa.

The study’s data were restricted to policy documents and observations of practices and initiatives on the ground.

The findings have implications for policy makers in respect of support for women’s entrepreneurship. Recommendations for future research are advanced.

The paper contributes to extant knowledge and understanding about entrepreneurship policy, specifically in relation to women’s entrepreneurship. It is also one of the few studies to use a common methodological approach to explore and compare women’s entrepreneurship policies in 13 countries.