Learning Together: National Differences in Entrepreneurship Research
The Blackwell Handbook of Entrepreneurship, Blackwell Business, Malden, MA, (2000)Abstract
In this chapter I first review the debate about cross-national differences that has raged in the organization theory field since the late 1970s. Many of the issues raised in that debate have striking parallels in the debates over research methods in entrepreneurship. Next, I examine four similarities in entrepreneurship research carried out in North America and Europe.
The first similarity is that research on entrepreneurship and research on organizations developed in partial isolation from one another in both regions. Thus, researchers in each region replicated many of the same disputes that occurred earlier in organization theory. Second, North American and European researchers have also been united by a strong normative and prescriptive orientation underlying their research. Accordingly, they have kept in close touch with practitioners and policymakers. Third, entrepreneurship research in both regions has focused more on description than hypothesis testing, although forces of diffusion and borrowing are now raising the salience of causal model building in the field. Fourth, researchers in both regions have focused mainly on established organizations, rather than on founding processes among start-ups. The four similarities between the regions have been strengthened by a strong set of forces promoting diffusion and borrowing among researchers.
I next review three differences that characterize the field. First, in contrast with their European colleagues, North American scholars have traditionally assumed that their findings are universal as opposed to being nation-specific. Second, European researchers have relied more on qualitative fieldwork methods than on the survey research designs favored by North Americans. Finally, the level of government and foundation support for entrepreneurship research is substantially larger in Europe than in North America. After surveying similarities and differences in the final section of this chapter, I consider some forces that might narrow international differences. I argue that vitality in the field of entrepreneurship studies depends upon maintaining diversity in research approaches. We have much to learn from one another, and many channels have opened through which we can carry on fruitful conversations about research and methods.