The Roots of Entrepreneurship and Small Business Research

Abstract

In this chapter I will focus on the roots of entrepreneurship and small business research. I will start by discussing some of the early thoughts about entrepreneurship and the introduction of entrepreneurship into economic literature (section 1). Joseph Schumpeter is an important figure in economic research on entrepreneurship, and his work is presented in section 2, followed by a discussion on the post-Schumpeterian development in economic science in section 3. Entrepreneurship and small business research gradually changed from being an economic discipline to a research area within behavioral science. The contribution of David McClelland is presented in a section in which I discuss the stream of research that attempts to answer the “who is an entrepreneur” question (section 4). In recent years entrepreneurship and small business research has also moved into the area of management science, as described in section 5. The chapter concludes with a discussion in section 6 in which I relate entrepreneurship and small business research to the development of society.