ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses a number of common research questions, and research designs in mainstream entrepreneurship journals. An important point of departure for this discussion is what people see as influences from the established research areas of strategy and organization theory. It argues that organization theory may have led to an increasing institutionalization of entrepreneurship research both in terms of the research questions asked and the tools used to answer them. The chapter discusses the discrepancy that people believe exists between the methodological imperatives promoted by this trend and what people believe to be the fundamental nature of entrepreneurship. It outlines some challenges and potential ways forward for entrepreneurship researchers interested in generating new types of answers to under-researched issues in the field. The chapter suggests that an alternative way forward is to embrace the philosophical tradition of pragmatism as providing a way to combine realistic meta-theoretical foundations with methodological guidelines that may enhance the likelihood of producing theory-driven research.
