The Entrepreneurship Research Challenge

Citation

Fendt, J. (2009), "The Entrepreneurship Research Challenge", International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, Vol. 15 No. 4, pp. 384-386. https://doi.org/10.1108/13552550910967949

Any researcher in entrepreneurship would spontaneously agree with this book title: a challenge, indeed! For one, entrepreneurship scholars are most likely also management scientists, sociologists, psychologists, economists, finance specialists, anthropologists, accounting specialists, marketers, political scientists or … whatever! The eclectic and pervasive effects, and benefits, of entrepreneurship naturally generate research questions that interest scholars of quite diverse disciplines. This leaves us with a widely dispersed, loosely connected domain of issues (Ireland and Webb, 2007). Davidsson sets out to describe and define this eclectic domain (which he prefers to call a phenomenon), then makes some suggestions on helpful (and less helpful) research strategies, designs and methods. Finally, he shares some ideas as to how research results could be optimally interpreted and disseminated.

Unless familiar with Davidsson's work, what first strikes the reader is the writing style: this is a single‐author book; a series of academic papers (some original, some fairly recently published), neatly set around a unifying theme and tied into a comprehensive argument. But this is also Per Davidsson's book, and he is not dissimulating it. In his book introduction, in the connecting chapter introductions where he ties the sections up into a comprehensive whole, and even in the actual papers themselves, he draws the reader into a kind of personal conversation; he lets the reader in on his experiences – be they satisfactory, disappointing or experimental – in a way that resembles something ethnographers might call the “confessional style” (Van Maanen, 1988). Some readers may enjoy this, others less so. What is sure is that once you have shared Davidsson's insights, stumblings, joys, and humor over some 240 pages, it feels as if he were part of your family.

The book sets off with a very clear and helpful introduction that lays out the “entrepreneurship phenomenon” as being:

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  an emerging, process phenomenon;

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  a highly heterogeneous phenomenon; and

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  one containing multiple levels of analysis.

He then lays down the consequences that these characteristics have with respect to sampling, operationalization, analysis and interpretation. These thoughts – the nature of the entrepreneurship phenomenon and its consequences on major research design issues – are then engrossed in the main body, over three parts of approximately equal size. Part 1, “Defining and describing the entrepreneurship phenomenon”, consists of two conceptual chapters. The first, very long chapter essentially arose from a comprehensive theoretical framework that Davidsson had written up for a large entrepreneurship program at the Jönköping International Business School. Entrepreneurship is first discussed as:

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  a societal phenomenon;

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  as a scholarly domain; and

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  finally, the distinctiveness of entrepreneurship is argued, namely its legitimacy as a distinct scholarly domain, which Davidsson, with Low (2001), concedes as “desirable, but not viable in isolation, that is, without theoretical input and quality standards from other fields of research” (p. 48).

This paper makes many useful clarifications and can serve as a bridge to scholars interested in using multitheoretic, multidisciplinary and/or multimethodological research lenses. This is also the paper where entrepreneurship is most comprehensively treated, where some macroeconomic aspects are modeled and where such elements of the phenomenon, such as corporate entrepreneurship, are briefly discussed. The continuation of the book then clearly focuses on nascent entrepreneurs and emerging ventures. Later “multilevel” discussions concern essentially micro and meso levels, i.e. behavioral realities, and oscillate between “the entrepreneur”, “the team” and “the (nascent) venture”. Macroeconomic aspects of entrepreneurship, such as incubation and cluster phenomena, or generally the role of the government and/or other institutional stakeholders, are somewhat set aside. The second chapter discusses the process nature of entrepreneurship and a number of heterogeneity issues, arguing that a search for a “best process” is not appropriate and that a “fit” between individuals, the venture idea, the environment, and the process, must be found. Together, these two chapters of Part 1 set the research scene quite comprehensively.

Part II: “Research design issues”, consists of three methods‐oriented manuscripts. It is more technical and clearly inward‐focused, on research practice and methods. Davidsson draws from many experiences, for example with overly heterogeneous samples in survey‐based research, and comes up with a number of interesting experimental approaches. The essential message is that weak results due to unobserved heterogeneity can be alleviated with good design and sound choices of research approach. Such approaches are discussed and concrete examples are laid out and illustrated. The concluding Part III, “Interpreting and spreading the results”, is composed of two chapters. The first one critically examines the dependent variables in entrepreneurship research, namely “failure”, “good” or “bad” performance, “growth” and other such classics. Such variables are radically and astutely unmasked along such dimensions as time, level and stakeholder perspectives, so as to gradually unveil all the difficulty we have, or should have, in defining such variables. In consequence, the great care we should take regarding the manner in which we choose, assess and interpret them is pursued. The book ends with an (auto‐)critical chapter on research relevance: how can our work matter? How can we be useful to business and policy makers?

This book is value adding for a fairly wide academic audience: essentially all those interested in diverse areas of entrepreneurship and innovation, or in questions of methodology, research design and interpretation of, ultimately, any complex, fast paced behavioural and social realities. It does not give us all the answers, thank heavens, but it certainly asks some excellent questions. The seasoned scholar may be stimulated to remain vigilant, and reminded to beware of the certitude we may have accumulated. Whereas, the novice scholar, will find some welcome foothold and guidance. Oh, and, before I forget, this book is simply fun to read; when could you last say that of a research methodology book?