IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hhs/ratioi/0238.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Pragmatic entrepreneurs and institutionalized scholars? - On the path-dependent nature of entrepreneurship scholarship

Author

Listed:
  • Wennberg, Karl

    (Ratio)

  • Berglund, Henrik

    (Chalmers University of Technology)

Abstract

Research surveys of the field of entrepreneurship suggest that the maturation and institutionalization of entrepreneurship as a research field brings about both new opportunities and constraints from established thoughts and practices. In this chapter we explore some commonly applied questions and methodological dogmas in the field. In doing so we argue that research in entrepreneurship is becoming increasingly institutionalized with regard to different issues: successively scholarship, research questions, areas/units of analysis, as well as research tools used. When draw upon insights from philosophy of science and research on discovery of research ideas to discuss whether we as researchers pose questions that help us better understand entrepreneurship, its role in society and the way it affects society. We conclude the chapter by using the philosophy of Pragmatism to discuss how Entrepreneurs are pragmatic agents that draw upon a multitude of skills, experiences, repertoires of themselves and of others to reach their goals. Perhaps entrepreneurship research could benefit from learning from such an approach?

Suggested Citation

  • Wennberg, Karl & Berglund, Henrik, 2014. "Pragmatic entrepreneurs and institutionalized scholars? - On the path-dependent nature of entrepreneurship scholarship," Ratio Working Papers 238, The Ratio Institute.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:ratioi:0238
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://ratio.se/app/uploads/2014/12/wp-238-pragmatic-entrepreneurs-and-institutionalized-scholars-.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Erik Stam, 2013. "Knowledge and entrepreneurial employees: a country-level analysis," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 41(4), pages 887-898, December.
    2. Andreas Rauch & Johan Wiklund & G.T. Lumpkin & Michael Frese, 2009. "Entrepreneurial Orientation and Business Performance: An Assessment of past Research and Suggestions for the Future," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 33(3), pages 761-787, May.
    3. Andrew Abbott, 1990. "A Primer on Sequence Methods," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 1(4), pages 375-392, November.
    4. Duchesneau, Donald A. & Gartner, William B., 1990. "A profile of new venture success and failure in an emerging industry," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 5(5), pages 297-312, September.
    5. Erkko Autio & Saurav Pathak & Karl Wennberg, 2013. "Consequences of cultural practices for entrepreneurial behaviors," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 44(4), pages 334-362, May.
    6. Jeffery McMullen & Lawrence Plummer & Zoltan Acs, 2007. "What is an Entrepreneurial Opportunity?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 28(4), pages 273-283, April.
    7. Mikael Samuelsson & Per Davidsson, 2009. "Does venture opportunity variation matter? Investigating systematic process differences between innovative and imitative new ventures," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 33(2), pages 229-255, August.
    8. Robert A. Baron & Michael D. Ensley, 2006. "Opportunity Recognition as the Detection of Meaningful Patterns: Evidence from Comparisons of Novice and Experienced Entrepreneurs," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(9), pages 1331-1344, September.
    9. Lichtenstein, Benyamin B. & Carter, Nancy M. & Dooley, Kevin J. & Gartner, William B., 2007. "Complexity dynamics of nascent entrepreneurship," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 236-261, March.
    10. Michael Lounsbury & Mary Ann Glynn, 2001. "Cultural entrepreneurship: stories, legitimacy, and the acquisition of resources," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(6‐7), pages 545-564, June.
    11. Karl Wennberg & Saurav Pathak & Erkko Autio, 2013. "How culture moulds the effects of self-efficacy and fear of failure on entrepreneurship," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(9-10), pages 756-780, December.
    12. Mole, Kevin F. & Mole, Miranda, 2010. "Entrepreneurship as the structuration of individual and opportunity: A response using a critical realist perspective: Comment on Sarason, Dean and Dillard," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 230-237, March.
    13. Venkataraman, S. & Van De Ven, Andrew H. & Buckeye, Jeanne & Hudson, Roger, 1990. "Starting up in a turbulent environment: A process model of failure among firms with high customer dependence," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 5(5), pages 277-295, September.
    14. Jeffery S. McMullen & Dimo Dimov, 2013. "Time and the Entrepreneurial Journey: The Problems and Promise of Studying Entrepreneurship as a Process," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(8), pages 1481-1512, December.
    15. Ilídio Barreto, 2012. "Solving the Entrepreneurial Puzzle: The Role of Entrepreneurial Interpretation in Opportunity Formation and Related Processes," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(2), pages 356-380, March.
    16. Constance E. Helfat & Marvin B. Lieberman, 2002. "The birth of capabilities: market entry and the importance of pre-history," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 11(4), pages 725-760, August.
    17. Sarasvathy, Saras D., 2004. "The questions we ask and the questions we care about: reformulating some problems in entrepreneurship research," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 19(5), pages 707-717, September.
    18. Wilhite, Allen, 2006. "Economic Activity on Fixed Networks," Handbook of Computational Economics, in: Leigh Tesfatsion & Kenneth L. Judd (ed.), Handbook of Computational Economics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 20, pages 1013-1045, Elsevier.
    19. Sarason, Yolanda & Dean, Tom & Dillard, Jesse F., 2006. "Entrepreneurship as the nexus of individual and opportunity: A structuration view," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 286-305, May.
    20. Van de Ven, Andrew H. & Engleman, Rhonda M., 2004. "Event- and outcome-driven explanations of entrepreneurship," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 343-358, May.
    21. Allen Wilhite, 2006. "Ideological and Pragmatic Decision-making in Networks," Computing in Economics and Finance 2006 103, Society for Computational Economics.
    22. Henrik Berglund, 2007. "Opportunities As Existing And Created: A Study Of Entrepreneurs In The Swedish Mobile Internet Industry," Journal of Enterprising Culture (JEC), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 15(03), pages 243-273.
    23. Jerker Denrell, 2003. "Vicarious Learning, Undersampling of Failure, and the Myths of Management," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 14(3), pages 227-243, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Shahid, Pirzada Syed Rizwan, 2023. "Founder's Human Capital and the Entrepreneurial Process Duration," OSF Preprints yf6mg, Center for Open Science.
    2. Crawford, G. Christopher & Aguinis, Herman & Lichtenstein, Benyamin & Davidsson, Per & McKelvey, Bill, 2015. "Power law distributions in entrepreneurship: Implications for theory and research," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 696-713.
    3. Elco van Burg & A. Georges L. Romme, 2014. "Creating the Future Together: Toward a Framework for Research Synthesis in Entrepreneurship," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 38(2), pages 369-397, March.
    4. Sergeeva, Anastasia & Bhardwaj, Akhil & Dimov, Dimo, 2021. "In the heat of the game: Analogical abduction in a pragmatist account of entrepreneurial reasoning," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 36(6).
    5. Steffen Korsgaard & Henrik Berglund & Claus Thrane & Per Blenker, 2016. "A Tale of Two Kirzners: Time, Uncertainty, and the “Nature†of Opportunities," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 40(4), pages 867-889, July.
    6. Jeffery S. McMullen & Dimo Dimov, 2013. "Time and the Entrepreneurial Journey: The Problems and Promise of Studying Entrepreneurship as a Process," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(8), pages 1481-1512, December.
    7. Andranik Tumasjan & Isabell Welpe & Matthias Spörrle, 2013. "Easy Now, Desirable Later: The Moderating Role of Temporal Distance in Opportunity Evaluation and Exploitation," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 37(4), pages 859-888, July.
    8. Erik Lundmark & Anna Krzeminska & Dean A. Shepherd, 2019. "Images of Entrepreneurship: Exploring Root Metaphors and Expanding Upon Them," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 43(1), pages 138-170, January.
    9. Susan Müller & Alyssa Lara Kirst & Heiko Bergmann & Barbara Bird, 2023. "Entrepreneurs’ actions and venture success: a structured literature review and suggestions for future research," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 60(1), pages 199-226, January.
    10. Zoltán J. Ács & Pontus Braunerhjelm & David B. Audretsch & Bo Carlsson, 2015. "The knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship," Chapters, in: Global Entrepreneurship, Institutions and Incentives, chapter 7, pages 129-144, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    11. Wood, Matthew S. & McKelvie, Alexander & Haynie, J. Michael, 2014. "Making it personal: Opportunity individuation and the shaping of opportunity beliefs," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 252-272.
    12. Per Davidsson & Jan Henrik Gruenhagen, 2021. "Fulfilling the Process Promise: A Review and Agenda for New Venture Creation Process Research," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 45(5), pages 1083-1118, September.
    13. Seyb, Stella K. & Shepherd, Dean A. & Williams, Trenton A., 2019. "Exoskeletons, entrepreneurs, and communities: A model of co-constructing a potential opportunity," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 34(6).
    14. Anna Long & Matthew S. Wood & Daniel L. Bennett, 2023. "Entrepreneurial organizing activities and nascent venture performance," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 60(2), pages 433-461, February.
    15. Jeffery S. McMullen & Katrina M. Brownell & Joel Adams, 2021. "What Makes an Entrepreneurship Study Entrepreneurial? Toward A Unified Theory of Entrepreneurial Agency," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 45(5), pages 1197-1238, September.
    16. Healey, Mark P. & Bleda, Mercedes & Querbes, Adrien, 2021. "Opportunity evaluation in teams: A social cognitive model," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 36(4).
    17. Tang, Jintong & Yang, Jun & Ye, Wenping & Khan, Shaji A., 2021. "Now is the time: The effects of linguistic time reference and national time orientation on innovative new ventures," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 36(5).
    18. Greg Fisher & Emily Neubert, 2023. "Evaluating Ventures Fast and Slow: Sensemaking, Intuition, and Deliberation in Entrepreneurial Resource Provision Decisions," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 47(4), pages 1298-1326, July.
    19. Kim, Phillip H. & Longest, Kyle C. & Lippmann, Stephen, 2015. "The tortoise versus the hare: Progress and business viability differences between conventional and leisure-based founders," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 185-204.
    20. Justin Paul & Philippe Hermel & Archana Srivatava, 2017. "Entrepreneurial intentions—theory and evidence from Asia, America, and Europe," Journal of International Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 324-351, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Entrepreneurship; Methods; Philosophy of Science;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B29 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - Other
    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hhs:ratioi:0238. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Martin Korpi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ratiose.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.