The Emergence of an Academic Field

Abstract

In chapter 2 I presented some pioneers of entrepreneurship and small business research who have been of significant importance for the development of knowledge about entrepreneurship and small business. We have also seen the strong historical relationship between the economic development of society and the scientific interest in entrepreneurship and small firms. In this chapter, I will present and discuss some ideas about the development of entrepreneurship and small business research since the beginning of the 1980s – the time when the field started to emerge. The chapter will mainly describe the development in a US context, with a strong focus on entrepreneurship as opposed to small business research. The development of the field can be divided into cognitive aspects of research, which involve the substance of research, the content of the theories, the logic of the methods employed, and social aspects of research, which deal with the academic community and the organization of research (Crane, 1972; Becher, 1989). Section 1 describes the “social turmoil” that characterized the 1970s and that triggered an increasing interest in the economy in general as well as among researchers. Section 2 treats the social development that has taken place within entrepreneurship and small business research especially in the 1990s, which witnessed a large increase in the number of researchers and the creation of an infrastructure within the field. Section 3 focuses on the cognitive development within entrepreneurship and small business research, including the advances in knowledge and methodology in the field during the last decades. During the emergence of entrepreneurship and small business as an academic field, several “struggles” took place that have had a major influence – and in some instances have impeded this development. These controversies will be discussed in section 4.