ENTREPRENEURSHIP AS A SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

PROGRAMME

José Maria VecianaUniversitat Autònoma de Barcelona

ABSTRACT:“In this article entrepreneurship as a scientific research

programme is developed and presented. In this relatively new field of study many different theories have emerged that try to explain the phenomenon of new enterprise or venture creation. After a brief treatment of the antecedents and historic of the author

discusses and suggests what should be development entrepreneurship, the distinctive domain of entrepreneurship research.

He then develops and presents the different paradigms or theoretical approaches that have emerged in this field. An

attempt is made to classify the diverse theories based on the various theoretical approaches to the study of entrepreneurship. The aim of this paper is not only to delimit this broad field of study but also to

offer a guide for future empirical research and theoretical developments.”

SUMMARY

• Develop entrepreneurship as a scientific research programmeObjective

Overview• Overview of origins and evolution, antecedents and historic

development. 4 stages: defining entrepreneur, historical studies, beginning of the scientific research in Business Administration, consolidation and explosion.

Development• Four theoretical approaches that have emerged in

the field of entrepreneurship, trying to explain entrepreneurship from very different perspectives.

4 STAGES

• 1st stage: who an entrepreneur is, what he does and what the entrepreneurial function is (1775-1900).

• 2nd stage: Historical studies (1920’s).

• 3rd stage: The Beginning of the Scientific Research Programme in the Field of Business Administration (1949-1979); Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs), Entrepreneur and New Venture Creation.

• 4th stage: Consiolidation and Explosion (1979-...).

ECONOMIC APPROACH

PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH

SOCIO-CULTURAL APPROACH

MANAGERIAL APPROACH

MICRO(Individual

level)

• Entrepreneurial function as fourth factor of

production• Theory of the

entrepreneurial profit• Theory of occupational

choice under uncentainty

• Traits theory•Psychodynamic theory

• Margination theory• Role theory• Network theory

• Leibenstein x-efficiency theory

•Behavioral theory of the entrepreneur

• modes of new enterprise creation

• modes to become an entrepreneur

MESO (Corporate

level)

Transaction cost theory X• Network theory• Incubators theory• Evolutionary

theory

• Modes of new enterprise success

and failure• Corporate

entrepreneurship

MACRO (Global-

country level)

• Schumpeter’s theory of economic development• Theory of the

endogenous regional development

Kirzner’s entrepreneur theory

• Weber’s theory of economic development• Theory of social change• Population ecology

theory• Institutional theory

X

THEORETICAL APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP

ECONOMIC APPROACH

Micro Level Meso Level

• the transaction costs determine both at an

individual and corporate level to create of a new,

own firm or to sell of the new entrepreneurial idea

or project.

• To be entrepreneur requires the combination of moral

qualities that are not frequently found together.

• Entrepreneur’s profit Include: a) risk premium b) the

entrepreneur’s wage c) the entrepreneur’s rent which is derived from the scarcity of persons with entrepreneurial

capacity.

• The less risk averse individuals become entrepreneurs, while the

more risk averse work as laborers.

Macro Level

• “Entrepreneur is any person that carves out new

combinations of the factors of production”.

• The opportunities of new combinations of factors of

production result mainly from the technological change.

• Each new investments produces a dissemination effect outside the company making the investment (the spillover

effect).

PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACHMicro Level Macro Level

• Kirzner's Entrepreneur theory

For Kirzner an entrepreneur is a person who is alert to business opportunities that have not

been identified by others.

The central concept is alertness to information (rather than possession).

Kirzner, like Schumpeter, believes that the market is in disequilibrium so there are market

opportunities.

With his behavior the entrepreneur pushes the market towards equilibrium.

• Traits theoryPsychological traits that distinguish

entrepreneurs from non-entrepreneurs and the successful entrepreneurs from the less

successful ones.

Need of independence Need of achievement Internal locus on control Risk taking propensity Unsatisfied or marginated persons Intuition Tolerance of ambiguity

• Psychodinamic Theory of entrepreneurial personality: emphasizes

the unconscious determinants of personality. People are driven by irrational forces.

SOCIO-CULTURAL APPROACH

Micro Level Meso Level Macro Level

Decision to become an independent entrepreneur is conditioned by external or environmental factors.

• Margination theorynew firm formation rate is higher

in the immigrant population (negative factor).

• Role theorywhy in industrial regions with an

entrepreneurial culture new firms are created and why it is so

difficult to foster entrepreneurship in regions with

a lack of these conditions. (i.e. Silicon Valley and Catalunya)

• Network theoryentrepreneurial function exists and develops in a network of

social relations.

• Network theorystrategic alliances are considered to be an intermediate or hybrid form of governance structure.

• Incubator's theoryspin-offs: firms that have been

incubated in other organizations.

• Evolutionary theoryclosely related to the incubator

theory, it could explain why some organizations have generated certain innovation routines.

• Weber's theory of economic developmentthe behavior of the capitalist-

entrepreneur is strongly conditioned by religious beliefs (Max Weber)

• Theory of social changefactors of the entrepreneurial spirit (degree of mobility, both social and

geographical, nature of mobility channels)

• Population ecology theorythe environment determines the birth, growth and death of new

enterprises.

• Institutional Theory"Institutions are the rules of the

game in a society or humanly devised constraints shape human

interaction" (North)

MANAGERIAL APPROACH

Micro Level Meso Level

• Under the managerial approach it is hypothesized that there are other factors that

determine the success and failure of new enterprises and that these variables are under

entrepreneur’s control.

• Corporate entrepreneurship can be described as the activity in a corporation that aims at

identifying new opportunities beyond the core business

The theories included under this approach are based on the assumption that the act of new enterprise formation is the

result of a rational decision.

•The entrepreneur is able to establish guidelines that can guide potential entrepreneurs in the

process of new enterprise creation.

• New enterprise creation is equivalent to the creation of a new system and therefore the

knowledge supplied by the organization theory should be taken into account.

• There are many ways to become an entrepreneur (i.e. franchise, purchasing a

company, inheritance...)

An analysis of big corporates should be developed using the previously described pattern.

It's difficult to reach exhaustive results for what concerns generating useful knowledge for creating new enterprises.

The first three approaches (economic, psychological and socio-cultural) try to explain why new firms are created while the

managerial approach is a useful guideline for generating knowledge, which is useful for future enterprises.

This study concerns a still too much variable context due to the fact that many factors of uncertainty could easily affect it.

CONCLUSION 1/2

CONCLUSION 2/2This new scientific research programme has been formed during the last fifty

years but it's consolidation has occurred in the last three decades.

Even though a sufficient conceptual and research work has been done so far to attempt to tackle this critical matter, there will be definitely much work and research to do from now on in order to face the many uncertainties

that nowadays represent the current situation.

In order to become an entrepreneur and open your very own business, a substantial investment will be required, and many new entrepreneurs

have difficulty obtaining funds on their own.

Now that we are beginning to overcome the financial/economic downturn, high risk investment may be even more difficult to find.