Rethinking Entrepreneurship: Debating Research Orientations

Entrepreneurship is a growing field of research, attracting researchers from many different disciplines including economics, sociology, psychology, and management. The concept of entrepreneurship, and research in the field, is becoming institutionalized, increasingly oriented by influential trends, theories and methods, following the mainstream and being shaped accordingly.

The objective of this book is to move beyond mainstream approaches and assumptions which are dominating the field, and to raise questions about the nature and process of entrepreneurship research. Over twelve chapters, leading international thinkers in the field debate the impact and the consequences of institutionalization. Taking key research orientations including multidisciplinarity, international entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, and ethics, it takes a critical and constructive and sometimes controversial posture and encourages a re-examination of the way we look at the social and economic phenomenon of entrepreneurship.

This book is vital reading for entrepreneurship researchers and educators, advanced students and policy-makers in Entrepreneurship, Economics, Sociology and Psychology.

Alain Fayolle is Professor of Entrepreneurship and Founding Director of the Entrepreneurship Research Centre at EM Lyon Business School, France. He acts as an expert for different governments and international institutions (OECD, EC, UNIDO). Alain published twenty five books and over one hundred articles in leading international and French-speaking journals. Among his editorial positions, he is notably an Associate Editor of JSBM and an Editor of two leading French-speaking journals. In 2013, Alain Fayolle got the 2013 European Entrepreneurship Education Award and has been elected officer of the Academy of Management Entrepreneurship Division.

Philippe Riot began his career as a Professor of Philosophy. He worked for several years with Michel Foucault, when he was involved in the research linked to the preparation of several of Foucault’s books. He joined EMLYON Business School in 1995 where he became a fulltime Professor of Strategy and Organization. He is presently the Head of the Strategy, Organizations and Entrepreneurship Department of EMLYON, France. He is a member of the OCE (Organization, Careers, and new Elites) research center of EMLYON and a co-founder of the College of Professors of EMLYON. He has published book chapters and papers in several reviews and is a reviewer for Society and Business Review and has led several studies, most of them focusing on the development of small and medium enterprises, on behalf of the French Ministry of Industry and Research.