What Makes an Entrepreneurship Study Entrepreneurial? Toward A Unified Theory of Entrepreneurial Agency

Jeffery S. McMullen, Katrina M. Brownell and Joel Adams

Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 2021, vol. 45, issue 5, 1197-1238

Abstract: Calls for greater contextualization have been powerful in motivating research and knowledge creation about entrepreneurship. However, unless counter-balanced with attempts to identify the field’s conceptual core, these efforts have the potential to devolve into hyper-contextualization, exposing the field to fragmentation, loss of consensus, and possible disintegration. We identify five elements of entrepreneurial agency common across eight subcommunities of entrepreneurship but emphasized differently in each. By conceiving of entrepreneurship as structural transformation, we explain why some agents succeed at transforming social structures via entrepreneurial action. We conclude with some first steps toward the development of a unified theory of entrepreneurial agency.

Keywords: entrepreneurial action; novelty; agency; institutions; structure (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (24)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:entthe:v:45:y:2021:i:5:p:1197-1238

DOI: 10.1177/1042258720922460

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