Entrepreneurship Safari: A Phenomenon-Driven Search for Meaning

Abstract

We propose a model that links seven different conceptions of entrepreneurship and maps them in relation to eight associated disciplines and theories, specifying their corresponding units and levels of analysis and stage in the entrepreneurial process. Entrepreneurship scholars are attempting to either carve out a distinctive domain for the field or build a distinctive theory of entrepreneurship. However, an obstacle for understanding entrepreneurship is the lack of integration of the assumptions implicit in different conceptualizations of entrepreneurship. We contribute a scholarship of integration approach for understanding the phenomena underlying these conceptualizations and linking entrepreneurship domain, theory, method, and policymaking.

Contents: Introduction; A Road Map; Entrepreneurship as the Individual Entrepreneur; Entrepreneurship as the Process of Innovation; Entrepreneurship as the Creation of Business or Organizations; Entrepreneurship as the Act of Entry; Entrepreneurship as Corporate Venturing; Entrepreneurship as the Process of Creative Destruction or Churning Rate; Entrepreneurship as the Small and Medium Sized Enterprise (SME); Conclusions and Directions for Future Research: References

Keywords: entrepreneurship theory, corporate entrepreneurship, innovation