Research Practice in Entrepreneurship: A Phenomenological Approach

Abstract

The methodological surveys of entrepreneurship research find the dominance of the positivists’ approach and data collection methods. Several scholars have called to move towards a more pluralistic tradition of data collection and growth in qualitative approaches to entrepreneurship problems. This article is a contribution to the latter in that it explicates phenomenological inquiry as an alternate approach for entrepreneurship research. This article reflects on the phenomenological inquiry as one of the ways to develop an investigation and acquire knowledge of a phenomenon, i.e. entrepreneurship. This article principally introduces the Husserlian and Heidegger’s phenomenological tenets as the theoretical foundations that can lead to an elaboration of an approach to phenomenological research in entrepreneurship.

Keywords: phenomenology, methodology, entrepreneurship, interpretive paradigm, Husserl, Heidegger