Discussion: View Thread

Coordinator: Franz T. Lohrke; Brock School of Business, Samford U.;
Coordinator: Hans Landstrom; Lund U.;

Presenter: Hans Landstrom; Lund U.;
Presenter: Patrick Kreiser; Ohio U.;
Presenter: Louis Marino; U. of Alabama;
Presenter: Nicolas Foss; Copenhagen Business School;
Presenter: Peter G Klein; U. of Missouri;
Presenter: Brian Nagy; U. of Alabama;
Presenter: Franz T. Lohrke; Brock School of Business, Samford U.;
Presenter: Todd W. Moss; Texas Tech U.;
Presenter: Jeremy Collin Short; Texas Tech U.;
Presenter: G. T. Lumpkin; Texas Tech U.;
Presenter: David Ahlstrom; Chinese U. of Hong Kong;
Presenter: Linda Chang Wang; Chinese U. of Hong Kong;
Presenter: Daniel Wadhwani; U. of the Pacific;

ABSTRACT

Entrepreneurship is a relatively young field that often has been regarded as rather ahistorical. In the last few years, however, we can identify some changes among entrepreneurship scholars that show renewed interest in the history of entrepreneurship both in teaching and research. These trends include increasingly self-reflective research with a stronger focus on the internal knowledge development within the field, and, in turn, a stronger interest in earlier contributions to entrepreneurship knowledge. In addition, entrepreneurship research has been increasingly theory driven, because in order to fully understand entrepreneurship, scholars need inputs from several disciplines including psychology, sociology, economics, and marketing. Theories from these disciplines, however, each have their own history and assumptions from which they developed, so in order to understand these theories, entrepreneurship researchers must understand the intellectual background from which each has emerged. Accordingly, in this symposium we first provide a general overview of the field's development. Next, different presenters will review several foundational (e.g., environmental uncertainty, entrepreneurship orientation, and liability of newness) and emerging (e.g., social entrepreneurship) research streams to demonstrate how history matters in entrepreneurship studies. We conclude by recommending avenues and historical methods for future research.

Historical Perspectives in Entrepreneurship Research   
Presenter: Hans Landstrom; Lund U.;

Environmental Uncertainty and Firm-level Entrepreneurship   
Presenter: Patrick Kreiser; Ohio U.;
Presenter: Louis Marino; U. of Alabama;

Overcoming the liability of newness: A review and research agenda   
Presenter: Brian Nagy; U. of Alabama;
Presenter: Franz T. Lohrke; Brock School of Business, Samford U.;

Social Entrepreneurship: A Review and Research Agenda   
Presenter: Todd W. Moss; Texas Tech U.;
Presenter: Jeremy Collin Short; Texas Tech U.;
Presenter: G. T. Lumpkin; Texas Tech U.;

Entrepreneurial Alertness   
Presenter: Nicolas Foss; Copenhagen Business School;
Presenter: Peter G Klein; U. of Missouri;

How History Matters In Entrepreneurship Research: Entrepreneurship In Ethnic Chinese Communities   
Presenter: David Ahlstrom; Chinese U. of Hong Kong;
Presenter: Linda Chang Wang; Chinese U. of Hong Kong;

Historical Methods and the Dynamics of Entrepreneurship   
Presenter: Daniel Wadhwani; U. of the Pacific;