Entrepreneurship is a phenomenon of tremendous societal importance. It
is also an elusive phenomenon, and researching entrepreneurship is
therefore fun, fascinating--and frustrating at times. In Researching
Entrepreneurship, one of the most highly recognized entrepreneurship
scholars shares in a personal and readable way his rich experience and
ideas on how entrepreneurship can or should be researched. After a
comprehensive treatment of entrepreneurship as societal phenomenon and
scholarly domain, the core chapters of the book discuss design,
sampling, operationalization and analysis issues on several levels of
analysis: individual, venture, firm, industry, region and nation. The
author provides numerous examples of problems and solutions from real
research projects, as well as experienced-based suggestions for further
improvements in future work.
The book is targeted primarily at doctoral students and other (relative)
newcomers to the field of entrepreneurship research. However, taking a
fresh, reflective perspective and looking beyond research conventions,
it should provide potential for inspiration and food for thought also
for experienced entrepreneurship researchers. Moreover, while the
examples are taken from entrepreneurship research, the book provides a
unique "experienced empirical researcher" (rather than "textbook method
expert") treatment of issues that are of equal relevance across the
social sciences. This goes for topics such as the role of theory;
qualitative vs. quantitative research; validity checking; statistical
inference, and replication.
Per Davidsson is Professor in Entrepreneurship at Brisbane Graduate
School of Management, QUT, Australia, and Jönköping International
Business School, Sweden. He is also Chair of the Research Committee of
the Entrepreneurship Division of the (American) Academy of Management.
