Entrepreneurship theory: possibilities and future directions

Abstract

Entrepreneurship is a highly dynamic and fast-growing academic research field with a long intellectual tradition. It attracts scholars with different backgrounds and theoretical frameworks, and with different levels of analyses and methodological orientations. But where is the field headed next? What is going on in entrepreneurship research? The purpose of this paper is to take stock of the current research in the field, to map it using bibliometric methods and social network analysis (SNA), and to offer directions for future research. Bibliographic coupling analysis (BCA) is used in this study, due to its ability to unveil current trends and future priorities as they are reflected at the forefront of research (i.e., active research fronts). Data were collected from the WoS, comprising 5,393 peer-reviewed journal articles published in 273 journals and containing 470,262 cited references. The results provide an overall perspective of the research in the field, identifying 16 different research fronts. We believe that this study significantly contributes to the entrepreneurship field by revealing the advancement of the literature and some of the most active research fronts in this domain, providing insights not previously fully grasped or evaluated by previous literature reviews.