Handbook of Entrepreneurship Research

What should the domain of entrepreneurship studies include? Though many scholars of entrepreneurship have cautioned and even argued strongly against limiting the focus of research to the entrepreneur (Gartner, 1988; Low and MacMillan, 1988), the last two decades have nonetheless seen an increased focus on the individual and that individual's recognition of opportunities in the study of entrepreneurship (Venkataraman, 1997). While many of these articles have been fruitful to increasing our understanding of the challenges entrepreneurs face, numerous important topics, particularly those with more relevance to scholarship and theory than to the practice of entrepreneurship, have been left underdeveloped. For example, less research has focused on the importance of the macroeconomic environment to firm founding, on social and kinship ties as sources of entrepreneurial activity, and the interaction between institutions and entrepreneurship.

In the Handbook of Entrepreneurship Research: Disciplinary Perspectives, we strive to increase awareness and stimulate research on these topics in the literature on entrepreneurship. We do so by drawing attention to the relevant research in the disciplines of economics and sociology. This volume of the handbook hopes to begin to bridge the gap between the research in entrepreneurship and the core disciplines by introducing three views of entrepreneurship from disciplinary perspectives. In particular, the chapters in this volume focus on entrepreneurship as it is informed by research in the economic theories of the firm, labor economics, and sociology. As such, the second volume of the handbook is intended to complement and build on the first volume by focusing on a select set of issues and examining them in an in-depth manner. Thus, while we continue in the tradition established in the first volume, that of drawing from the rich disciplinary perspectives, we abstract away from topics that have received much attention in the first volume (and in other entrepreneurship related collections (e.g. small business economics, psychological and other traits of entrepreneurs) to avoid redundancy. Instead, we hope that the chapters in the second volume inform entrepreneurship researchers of new and fruitful avenues to benefit from work that may not have received as much prominent attention as have other areas.

Auteur
Sharon A. Alvarez Dr. Sharon Alvarez is an assistant professor of entrepreneurship in the Department of Management and Human Resources at The Ohio State University. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Colorado. Professor Alvarez's current research interests include entrepreneurship and modern theories of the firm and technology alliances between entrepreneurial firms and larger established firms. She has published articles in Academy of Management Executive, Journal of Management, and Journal of Business Venturing and regularly presents her work at national conferences such as Academy of Management, Babson, and Strategic Management Conference. Dr. Alvarez currently holds editorial positions at Journal of Small Business Economics, Entrepreneurship, Theory & Practice, and Journal of Business Venturing.

Rajshree Agarwal

Rajshree Agarwal is assistant professor of strategic management in the College of Business at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She received her Ph.D in Economics from SUNY-Buffalo. Professor Agarwal has worked in the area of evolutionary economics. Her papers have examined the diffusion of new product innovations and the impact of the industry life cycle on firm performance. Her current research interests focus on issues relating to dynamic capability acquisition, and how processes of knowledge transfer impact both industry evolution and firm performance. She has published articles in the Academy of Management Journal, Management Science, Journal of Law and Economics, Journal of Industrial Economics, and the Review of Economics and Statistics, among others. Professor Agarwal is an active member in both the American Economic Association and the Academy of Management, and regularly presents her work at several national and international conferences.

Olav Sorenson

Olav Sorenson is associate professor of policy at the University of California, Los Angeles. He received his Ph.D. from the Sociology Department at Stanford University. Professor Sorenson's research focuses on two topics: the role of social networks in entrepreneurship and economic geography, and the relationship between organizational design and organizational learning. His research appears in several leading journals, such as the American Journal of Sociology, Management Science, the Strategic Management Journal, Research Policy, Industrial and Corporate Change, and the Sloan Management Review. Dr. Sorenson also currently holds, or has held, editorial positions at the American Journal of Sociology, Administrative Science Quarterly, the Academy of Management Review, Small Business Economics, Research Policy and Strategic Organization.

Résumé
early economic thinkers and classic works such as Cantillon (1755), Knight (1921), and Kirzner (1973). The paper opens by explaining how uncertainty and thus entrepreneurship disappeared from microeconomic theory as it became increasingly formalized (and stylized). It then goes on to bring the entrepreneur and entrepreneurial decision-making back into economic theory by focusing on the interrelationships among actors, knowledge, and perceived economic opportunities using a resource-based framework. The third paper in this section (Chapter 4) is by Foss and Klein, "Entrepreneurship and the Economic Theory of the Firm: Any Gains from Trade?" Foss and Klein strongly link theories of the firm to entrepreneurship, arguing a fundamental and intrinsic connection between the two. They, like Mahoney and Michael, explain how entrepreneurship became less important in economic models as the general equilibrium model became dominant. Foss and Klein ask: Does the entrepreneur need a firm? They focus on the judgment of the entrepreneur and suggest that this judgment is exercised through asset ownership and starting a firm. Foss and Klein further argue that it is through this notion of judgment that heterogeneous assets combine to meet future wants.

Contenu
Theory, Strategy, and Entrepreneurship.- A Subjectivist Theory of Entrepreneurship.- Entrepreneurship and the Economic Theory of the Firm: Any Gains from Trade?.- Employee Entrepreneurship: Recent Research and Future Directions.- Determinants of Scientist Entrepreneurship: An Integrative Research Agenda.- Factors Affecting Entrepreneurial Activity: Literature Review.- Using Linked Employer-Employee Data to Study Entrepreneurship Issues.- The Ecology of Entrepreneurship.- Institutions and Entrepreneurship.- Social Networks and Entrepreneurship.- Entrepreneurship and Disciplinary Scholarship: Return to the Fountainhead.