Decoding evidence-based entrepreneurship: A systematic review of meta-analytic choices and reporting

Andreas Rauch, Saadat Saeed and Michael Frese

Journal of Small Business Management, 2025, vol. 63, issue 4, 1783-1829

Abstract: Meta-analysis—the statistical analysis of a large collection of analysis results from individual studies for the purpose of integrating the findings substantially contributes to paradigm development in the field of entrepreneurship. Notably, a number of choices are made when conducting a meta-analysis. Many of these choices have implications for the interpretation of the results, affecting one of the core aims of meta-analysis, that is, to generate generalizable best evidence. To better understand meta-analysis evidence in the field of entrepreneurship it is essential to understand how these meta-analyses are conducted, what type of methodological choices have been made and communicated, and how these choices affect the interpretation of findings. To address these issues, we performed a content analysis of 90 meta-analyses up to 2021 and investigate 74 methodological choices made by the authors. We identify and offer suggestions for future practice in seven areas: the study location strategy, the use of a second coding, the assessment of heterogeneity, multivariate analysis, quality checks, the violation of assumptions, and the interpretation of meta-analytical findings. In so doing, we hope to contribute to best practices and to the legitimacy of validity generalization in the domain of entrepreneurship research. Moreover, we provide a comprehensive and evidence-based understanding of the interpretation and implications of meta-analysis practices for theory building and testing and scholarly impact.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00472778.2024.2411246 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:ujbmxx:v:63:y:2025:i:4:p:1783-1829

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/ujbm20

DOI: 10.1080/00472778.2024.2411246

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Small Business Management is currently edited by Eric Liguori

More articles in Journal of Small Business Management from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().