The Power of Replication

Abstract

How can we develop more solid knowledge about entrepreneurship? Like in other fields of research, the truth is that we never know the truth, but that we can arrive at increasingly accurate approximation of it. In this collective quest of knowledge development, statistical significance testing is a sadly overused tool, while replication of prior research is a better but sadly underused tool. After reiterating the limitations and frequent misuse of significance testing, this chapter illustrates how we can make progress by replicating others (traditional replication studies), each other (harmonized research collaboration), and ourselves (using multiple samples or sub-samples; robustness testing). The chapter ends on a high note with observation of several signs that our research culture may finally be about to start embracing the importance of replication and reproducibility.