ABSTRACT

Entrepreneurship is a growing field of research, attracting researchers from many different disciplines including economics, sociology, psychology, and management. The concept of entrepreneurship, and research in the field, is becoming institutionalized, increasingly oriented by influential trends, theories and methods, following the mainstream and being shaped accordingly.

The objective of this book is to move beyond mainstream approaches and assumptions which are dominating the field, and to raise questions about the nature and process of entrepreneurship research. Over twelve chapters, leading international thinkers in the field debate the impact and the consequences of institutionalization. Taking key research orientations including multidisciplinarity, international entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, and ethics, it takes a critical and constructive and sometimes controversial posture and encourages a re-examination of the way we look at the social and economic phenomenon of entrepreneurship.

This book is vital reading for entrepreneurship researchers and educators, advanced students and policy-makers in Entrepreneurship, Economics, Sociology and Psychology.

chapter |16 pages

Dimly through the fog

Institutional forces affecting the multidisciplinary nature of entrepreneurship

chapter |16 pages

Moving on

Affirming the entrepreneurial in entrepreneurship research

chapter |13 pages

The economic reification of entrepreneurship

Re-engaging with the social

chapter |21 pages

Social entrepreneurship

To defend society from itself

chapter |23 pages

Navigating the growing field of entrepreneurship inquiry

Successionist and relational modes of theory development

chapter |7 pages

Conclusion

Final thoughts and perspectives