Pioneering Entrepreneurship Research: How, by Whom, and When

Economic thought on entrepreneurship goes at least as far back as to Richard Cantillon, Adam Smith and Jean-Baptiste Say in the 18th and 19th centuries, and by some accounts much further back. After being neglected throughout a large part of the 20th century, entrepreneurship research has risen to become one of the most forceful, dynamic and expansionary fields in social sciences, represented by variety of specialized journals and conferences and encompassing several academic sub-disciplines. This monograph attempts to provide an overview of primarily contemporary pioneers in entrepreneurship research who have been instrumental in defining, re-introducing and establishing entrepreneurship as a core research discipline through their seminal scientific endeavors. Besides of the founding fathers of entrepreneurship research, we have identified 45 pioneers from a list of several hundreds of potential candidates. Three of those made their most seminal contributions between the late 1940s and the late 1960s. The remaining 42 contemporary pioneers were decisive for the establishment of the research field. Our ambition is thus to provide answers to how, by whom and when these pioneering contributions were made. By necessity, given how large and diverse the field has become, many researchers and topics have been left out of this review. We humbly recognize that we may have left out researchers who deserve to be mentioned; nevertheless we feel confident that selection of scholars are all worthy pioneers in the entrepreneurship research field.