Contextualization and the advancement of entrepreneurship research

Abstract

We are indebted to Shaker Zahra, Mike Wright and Sondos Abdelgawad for their contribution to our 'Future Directions' occasional series of research papers. The focus on context is timely and apposite; in essence all social phenomena are undertaken in specific contexts which intersect to generate, enable or constrain particular forms of behaviour. Yet so often in contemporary research, the critical and dynamic influence of context is taken for granted and remains invisible and unacknowledged. Within this paper, the authors evaluate the role of context in advancing research into entrepreneurial propensities, activities and outcomes. As such, it offers an invaluable reminder of the importance of this construct but importantly, using the insights generated from the many iterations and influences of context suggests coherent future research pathways to advance current theoretical and empirical analyses of entrepreneurship. We are confident this article will be an invaluable contribution to informing future research endeavours. Contextualization and the Advancement of Entrepreneurship Research 1 AbstractWithin this article, we analyze the role of context in the advancement of entrepreneurship research. We define contextualization and discuss why and how it is important in entrepreneurship research; the evidence relating to different dimensions of entrepreneurial context, focusing on temporal, industry, spatial, social, and organizational, ownership and governance is reviewed. The nature of entrepreneurship research with and without contextualization is explored and finally, we consider the challenges in undertaking contextualized entrepreneurship research.

Qualitative research practices and family business scholarship: A review and future research agenda

“…The selection of these topics serves to remind us about the potential of qualitative research for examining the 'microfoundations' (Gagné et al, 2014;Zahra et al, 2014) of family business structures and behaviors and for 'narrowing the micromacro gap' (Bamberger, 2008, p.840) in family business research. In addition, we argue that greater scrutiny about the foundational questions we are trying to address through qualitative inquiry is important because there is no 'single, monolithic approach to qualitative research and evaluation' (Patton, 2002, p.76) or accepted 'boilerplate' that standardizes the approach to and writing of qualitative research (Pratt, 2009, p.856).…”

“…Being explicit about the foundational questions underlying our research choices helps a reconnection to the fundamental meanings and purpose of qualitative research. Such scrutiny would also enable examination of the 'micro-foundations' (Gagné, Sharma, & De Massis, 2014;Zahra, Wright, & Abdelgawad, 2014) of family Table 1 Key features of qualitative research and distinctive traits in the family business field.…”

Accelerating the Transition of Technologies Created through the U.S. Department of Defense Small Business Innovation Research Program

“…Using HLMs, this study better incorporates within-and between-region /industry characteristics and overcomes the violation of independence of error terms (Zouaghi, Hirsch and Garcia, 2016;Short et al, 2009). As entrepreneurship research on the context of entrepreneurs and small businesses' activities emerges, on the other hand, it is not sufficient to simply control for contextual variables in the analysis of entrepreneurial innovations (Zahra, Wright and Abdelgawad, 2014). As Aldrich and Martinez (2001) noted, it might grossly ignore the micro foundations of entrepreneurial activities.…”

“…For instance, Autio et al (2014) provided a list of contexts that are important for entrepreneurial innovation: temporal; spatial; organizational; institutional/policy; social; and industry/technology. Further, Zahra, Wright and Abdelgawad (2014) argued that because contextual factors can explain entrepreneurial activities with particular meaning, they should not be used just as controlling variables in the relevant studies. 5 As National Research Council (2014, p. 240) noted, there is no simple definition of "technology transition" particularly relative to "technology commercialization."…”

Entrepreneurial Orientation in Different Environmental Settings: a Comparative Cross-Country Study

“…As asserted by Bamiatzi and Kirchmaier (2014), the relationship between firm strategy and growth can be properly identified only in context. According to Zahra et al (2014), contextualization is currently considered to be one of the leading forces of advancement in the entrepreneurship field. Previous research has shown that firms' strategies are dependent on the environment, especially with regard to different resources and business opportunities that can be explored and exploited (Rosenbusch et al, 2013).…”