Context, time, and change: Historical approaches to entrepreneurship research

• Author: Friederike Welter,R. Daniel Wadhwani,David Kirsch,William B. Gartner,Geoffrey G. Jones
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/sej.1346
• Date: 01 March 2020
• Published date: 01 March 2020

SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE

Context, time, and change: Historical approaches

to entrepreneurship research

R. Daniel Wadhwani

1,2

| David Kirsch

3

| Friederike Welter

4,5

|

William B. Gartner

6,7

| Geoffrey G. Jones

8

1

Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies,

Marshall School of Business,University of

Southern California, Los Angeles, California

2

Center for Business History, Department of

Management, Politics, and Philosophy,

Copenhagen Business School, Copenhagen,

Denmark

3

Department of Management and

Organization, Robert H. Smith School of

Business, University of Maryland, College

Park, Maryland

4

School of Economic Disciplines, University of

Siegen, Siegen, Germany

5

Institut für Mittelstandsforschung Bonn,

Bonn, Germany

6

Division of Entrepreneurship, Babson

College, Babson Park, Massachusetts

7

Department of Organisation and

Entrepreneurship, Linnaeus University, Vaxjo,

Sweden

8

Business History Initiative, Harvard Business

School, Boston, Massachusetts

Correspondence

R. Daniel Wadhwani, University of Southern

California and Copenhagen Business School,

Stockton, CA.

Email: dwadhwani@marshall.usc.edu

Abstract

Research Summary:We articulate the value of historical

methods and reasoning in strategic entrepreneurship research

and theory. We begin by introducing the papers in the special

issue, contextualizing each within one of five broader methodo-

logical approaches, and elaborating on the applicability of each

to other topics in entrepreneurship research. Next, we use the

papers to induce a framework for integrating history into entre-

preneurship theory. The framework demonstrates how histori-

cal assumptions play a formative role in operationalizing time

and context in entrepreneurship research. We then show how

variations in these treatments of time and context shape theo-

retical claims about entrepreneurial opportunities, actions, and

processes of change. We conclude by discussing why this may

be a particularly opportune time for strategic entrepreneurship

research to develop a deeper historical sensibility.

Managerial Summary:History can serve as an especially

important guide to understanding entrepreneurship during

moments of change. We draw on articles from the special

issue on “Historical Approaches to Entrepreneurship

Research”to illustrate different forms of historical reason-

ing and research about entrepreneurship. Moreover, we use

the articles to develop a framework for understanding how

historical context and time shape entrepreneurial opportu-

nities, actions, and processes of change. We emphasize, in

particular, the value of history in understanding variations in

entrepreneurial practices.

Received: 22 January 2020 Accepted: 22 January 2020

DOI: 10.1002/sej.1346

© 2020 Strategic Management Society

Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal. 2020;14:3–19. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/sej 3

KEYWORDS

change, context, historical methods, opportunity, time

Personally, I believe that there is an incessant give and take between historical and theoretical analysis

and that, though for the investigation of individual questions it may be necessary to sail for a time on one

tack only, yet on principle the two should never lose sight of each other.

—Schumpeter (1949), p. 75, “Economic Theory and Economic History”

1|INTRODUCTION

This article—and the special issue on “Historical Approaches to Entrepreneurship Research”that it introduces—is

about the past. But it is also about the present and the future.

Today, scholars are embracing a broader and more contextualized understanding of strategic entrepreneur-

ship (Autio, Kenney, Mustar, Siegel, & Wright, 2014; Baker & Welter, 2018). This work situates the pursuit of

entrepreneurial opportunities not only within its institutional, spatial, social, and cultural contexts (Lounsbury &

Glynn, 2019; Zahra, Wright, & Abdelgawad, 2014) but also considers the relationship of entrepreneurship to

time (Dimov, 2011; Lippmann & Aldrich, 2016b; McMullen & Dimov, 2013; Wood, Bakker, & Fisher, 2020) and

change (Aldrich & Ruef, 2006; Alvarez, Barney, & Anderson, 2013; Bodroži

c & Adler, 2018) in markets and

societies.

The articles in this special issue demonstrate that historical reasoning, data sources, and methods of interpreta-

tion represent a significant opportunity to advance this research agenda. History offers entrepreneurship scholars

access to unique forms of theorizing (Maclean, Harvey, & Clegg, 2016; Suddaby & Foster, 2017; Wadhwani & Jones,

2014); to valuable and underused data sources (Forbes & Kirsch, 2011); and to a variety of methods (Rowlinson,

Hassard, & Decker, 2014) for incorporating context, time, and change more explicitly into entrepreneurship research

and theory. Historical approaches have gained considerable attention across the “human sciences”(McDonald, 1996)

and more recently in management and organizational research in particular (Argyres et al., 2020; Godfrey, Hassard,

O'Connor, Rowlinson, & Ruef, 2016; Ingram, Rao, & Silverman, 2012). This special issue seeks to cultivate a deeper

“historical consciousness”(Suddaby, 2016) about strategic entrepreneurship by explicating the range of historical

methods that are useful for research on the topic and synthesizing these approaches to demonstrate how historical

reasoning can be incorporated into entrepreneurship theory.

Our discussion takes its departure from Schumpeter's (1947, 1949) claim that historical research is essential

to both the empirical study of entrepreneurship and to the advancement of entrepreneurship theory. We begin by

introducing the article s in the special issue and discussing the va riety of approaches to historical resea rch they rep-

resent. We highlight the intellectual contribution of each article and demonstrate how each article provides an

exemplar for a particular me thod for studying entrepren eurship historically. N ext, we synthesize these con tribu-

tions into a broader framework for integrating history in entrepreneurship theory. We define history as the inter-

pretation of the past in the pre sent. The framework demon strates how assumptions a bout the relationship

between the past and present shape our understandings of context and time in entrepreneurship theory, and how

these, in turn, shape th eoretical claims about the nature of opp ortunities and the extent of entrepren eurial agency.

We also show how varying co mbinations of the con ceptualization of hi storical context and hi storical time shape

theoretical claims abou t entrepreneurial act ion and mechanisms chan ge. We conclude by discuss ing the broader

implications of this hist orical framework for the st udy of strategic entrepr eneurship as an essential dr iver of the

dynamics of capitalism .

4WADHWANI ET AL.