Entrepreneurship at a crossroads: Meta‐analysis as a foundation and path forward

Abstract

Research Summary This special issue on “Advancing Entrepreneurship Research through Meta‐analysis” was commissioned in the belief that many entrepreneurship research topics have reached a crossroads. As a maturing, dynamic, and growing field, researchers are generating ever more empirical evidence regarding the field's central questions. Researchers can continue down this road, but for many topics, it seems time to pause and take stock of what has been learned—a task meta‐analysis was created to accomplish. We describe how the special issue articles accumulate and clarify what is known about important questions. Two of the studies highlight that entrepreneurial organizations are in fact different from other organizational settings, and all lay foundations that open new avenues for inquiry. We conclude by summarizing the types of questions meta‐analysis can help answer going forward and the advanced meta‐analytic techniques that are becoming increasingly important for answering such questions. Managerial Summary This special issue was commissioned because many entrepreneurship research streams contain mixed evidence about the nature of important relationships. Such a situation makes it difficult for entrepreneurs to leverage academic findings as they make decisions and for researchers to understand what is known. Meta‐analysis is a set of statistical tools that allows for the reconciliation of evidence that points in different directions and thereby provides actionable guidance for entrepreneurs and a solid foundation for researchers to build on. This introduction summarizes the special issue articles and describes their contributions. One key overall implication that arises from this collection of studies is that much of what works in traditional organizations is likely to work quite differently in entrepreneurial contexts.

As Empresas Juniores Contribuem para Mudanças Pessoais em Universitários?

“…O grupo 2 sugere intervenções em relação à percepção de estratégias de enfrentamento negativo do estresse e à extroversão. Empresários juniores com experiência entre 12 e 24 meses, mudança na autoeficácia e coping em decorrência das atividades estressantes e pressões já conhecidas por eles em seu contexto de trabalho (Akhmetshin et al, 2021;Combs, Crook, Ketchen Jr., & Wright, 2021). Em relação à extroversão, habilidades de acolhimento e comunicação afirmativa devem ser desenvolvidas.…”

Review Research as Scientific Inquiry

“…An analysis of the Web of Science database in the categories “business” and “management” reveals a substantial growth of review articles per year over time, as displayed in Figure 1. The importance and growing popularity of review articles have been recognized in multiple subfields in business and management, including accounting (Massaro et al, 2016), entrepreneurship (Combs et al, 2021; Kraus et al, 2020; Kraus et al, in press), human resource management (Callahan, 2014; Torraco, 2005), international business (Paul & Criado, 2020), organizational behavior and organization theory (Dasborough, 2020), marketing (Hulland & Houston, 2020; Palmatier et al, 2018), strategy (Durand et al, 2017; Ethiraj et al, 2017), and supply chain management (Durach et al, 2017; Seuring & Gold, 2012).…”

Does It Need to be Broader or Deeper? Trade-Offs in Entrepreneurship Theorizing

“…Entrepreneurship is still relatively new as a field (Combs et al, 2021; McMullen et al, 2021; Shepherd, 2015). Therefore, entrepreneurship scholarship needs to continue to develop new theories and elaborate on existing theories to best explain entrepreneurial phenomena.…”