Advancing Our Understanding of Theory in Entrepreneurship

• Author: Sharon A. Alvarez,David Audretsch,Albert N. Link
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/sej.1216
• Published date: 01 March 2016
• Date: 01 March 2016

ADVANCING OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THEORY

IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP

SHARON A. ALVAREZ,

1

*DAVIDAUDRETSCH,

2

and ALBERT N. LINK

3

1

Daniels College of Business, University of Denver, Denver, Colorado, U.S.A

2

School of Public and Environmental Affairs, IndianaUniversity, Bloomington,

Indiana, U.S.A

3

Bryan School of Businessand Economics, University of North Carolina at

Greensboro, Greensboro, North Carolina, U.S.A.

INTRODUCTION

Over the past 15years, the field of entrepreneurship

has been on a relentless pursuit fortheories that enable

researchers to study entrepreneurial phenomena.

Indeed, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal has

played a significant rolein this pursuit and theoretical

development since its introduction in 2007. The lead

article on theories of opportunities in the inaugural

issue and laterthe two special issues devotedto theory

development in entrepreneurship established Strategic

Entrepreneurship Journal as an outlet where

entrepreneurship theories could be advanced. It is in

that spirit that this special issue has developed.

The hunger for theories of entrepreneurship is a

reflection of thedesire in the field of entrepreneurship

to provide more meaningful, predictive, and relevant

theoretical frameworks for researchers, teachers,

entrepreneurs, and students. As a result of this

theoretical pursuit, theories have emerged that are

rooted in the disciplines but have been shaped to are

unique to the studyof entrepreneurship. Theoriessuch

as bricolage, creation and discovery theories of

opportunities,and effectuation have all emerged since

2000. These theories, while still relatively young and

certainly in need of further development, are

nonetheless thedominant theories in entrepreneurship

today. The articles in thisspecial issue either promote

provocative and critical work that directly addresses

these nascent theories of entrepreneurship or have

implications for the development of these theories.

The first article in this special issue, ’Bridging

behavioral models and theoretical concepts:

effectuation and bricolage in the opportunity creation

framework’by Welter, Mauer, and Wuebker (2016,

this issue) addresses questions that havesurfaced with

the new theoretical work in the entrepreneurship

domain: (1) are bricolage, the creation view of

opportunities, and effectuation concepts interrelated

or are they the same?; (2) precisely how do they relate

to and complementone another; and (3) where do they

diverge? This article examines the roots of each of

these concepts and their underlying assumptions,

organizing them within a unifying conceptual frame.

The next article by Pryor et al. (2016, this issue),

’Towardan integration of the behavioral and cognitive

influences on the entrepreneurship process ,’also

addresses the theory of opportunities by examining

the cognitive processes for why entrepreneurs may

pursue activities seemingly at random. The authors

present a fra mework that i ntegrates sens emaking and

structuration perspectives to specify the cognitive

and behavioral influences on the entrepreneurship

process.

The article by Kuechle, Boulu-Reshef, and Carr

(2016, this issue), ’Prediction- and control-based

strategies in entrepreneurship:the role of information’

suggests thatprediction and control strategies underlie

the two main hypotheses of how entrepreneurs deal

with uncertainty in theories of entrepreneurship.

Prediction-based strategies focus on estimating

unknowns via sampling methods, whereas control-

Keywords: entrepreneurship theory

*Correspondence to: Sharon A. Alvarez, Daniels College of

Business,University of Denver,Daniels 458, Denver, CO 80208,

U.S.A. E-mail:Sharon.Alvarez@du.edu.

Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal

Strat. Entrepreneurship J. 10:3–4 (2016)

Published onlinein Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI: 10.1002/sej

Copyright © 2016 Strategic Management Society

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