Abstract
Just imagine if you had the opportunity to meet individually with the top entrepreneurship scholars in the world. Imagine them sharing their evolution as scholars, outlining their seminal research contributions and discussing unresolved questions in the field that you could pursue. The book ‘Great Minds in Entrepreneurship Research’, authored by Vishal K. Gupta, is possibly the closest you can get to that type of intellectual experience.
The book profiles 27 prizewinners of the Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research (GAER) awarded every year since the first prize in 1996. Apart from being influenced by some of the winners, it was heartening to note that I was a doctoral student in two research seminars conducted by Howard E. Aldrich and Scott A. Shane, GAER winners in 2000 and 2009 respectively, during my PhD in Entrepreneurship Programme at the University of Louisville, USA.
The rigorous selection process that begins with the editors of the leading entrepreneurship journals nominating candidates, proceeds with a stringent independent assessment of the candidates and concludes with a glittering award ceremony was impressive. No wonder the GAER is informally referred as the ‘Nobel’ prize for entrepreneurial research studies.
In the introduction chapter, the author provides an overview of the history of GAER and the three leading Swedish organisations jointly responsible for the prestigious prize embodying the highest honour and accomplishment in entrepreneurship research. The 27 GAER recipients are grouped into seven categories based on the GAER citation that accompanied their awards (small firms, purpose, geography, from the disciplines, strategy, subdomains and overall programme).
In Chapter 2, four awardees are grouped in the small business category. David Birch’s (1996) seminal contributions that small firms are important for job creation are well presented. Zoltan Acs and David Audretsch (2001) are credited with measuring innovative activity. The author points to their findings on the role of small firms in innovation that is dependent on the nature of the particular industry. The author also notes the contribution made by the team in founding the Small Business Economic Journal. The most recent winner, John Haltiwanger’s (2020) prodigious research output and influence in pivoting the research focus in entrepreneurship from firm size to firm age and from gross job creation to net job creation in labour market studies, is featured prominently. The author uses citations and references generously throughout the chapter, which creates a resource base for entrepreneurship students.
Every new field is concerned with identifying the scope of its emerging discipline – Chapter 3 groups three GAER awardees in the purpose category, each of whom has played a key role in understanding the purpose for scholarly inquiry in entrepreneurship. The author outlines Steven Keppler’s (2011) work on the role of the size of firms in influencing innovation over the product life cycle and the historical analysis of industry evolution, focusing on new firms, both of which linked mainstream economics with the study of entrepreneurship. The author posits that Philippe Aghion’s (2016) work on developing a theory of economic growth based on Schumpeter’s idea of creative destruction while borrowing from theoretical industrial organisation and patent race literature has been his landmark contribution to the field. Boyan Jovanovic’s (2019) original work in competitive dynamics between firms in an industry, job turnover and labour mobility, and the advantage of young firms in emerging technologies are well detailed in the chapter.
In Chapter 4, the author categorises four researchers for their work in the spatial dimensions of entrepreneurship. While discussing the work of Charles Sabel and Giacomo Becattini (2002) on competitive advantages of industrial districts using the Marshallian framework, the author explains the terminologies and then provides a short explanation of Marshall’s ideas on internal and external economies and the economic and social benefits of industrial districts. This approach helps the reader who may not be familiar with the research stream or domain area to relate to the topics discussed and increase readability. The author outlines Maryann Feldman’s (2013) central contributions in characterising entrepreneurial activities as spatially located and based on the existing knowledge externalities as pivotal in Feldman’s framing of the entrepreneur as an economic agent. The importance of social capital and spatial proximity in entrepreneurial activity and innovation and resource investment decisions is emphasised as a key contribution of Olav Sorenson (2018).
The intersection of entrepreneurship inquiry with psychology, sociology, economics and finance is used as a backdrop to group the next set of four awardees into the ‘from the disciplines’ category in Chapter 5. The distinctive contribution of Howard Aldrich (2000) in using theoretical models from sociology and basic concepts of variation, adaptation, selection and retention, in studying the formation and evolution of new and small firms is explained in great detail. The economist William Baumol (2003) is mentioned as a strong advocate of entrepreneurship’s role in the economy, and his research on the productive, unproductive and destructive entrepreneurial activity is affirmed in the chapter. The author expands on Israel Kirzner’s (2006) contribution, who promoted the entrepreneur’s role and the entrepreneurial attribute of alertness in an economy that rejected the neoclassical concept of existing equilibrium characterised by perfect information, competition and coordination. Chapter 5 concludes with Josh Lerner’s (2010) role in the emergence and development of the field of entrepreneurial finance with the synthesis of finance and entrepreneurship and his work in venture capital and private equity.
The strategy category in Chapter 6 includes four prominent scholars awarded for their work at the intersection of strategy and entrepreneurship. Arnold Cooper (1997) pioneered work in new technology-based firms, incubator firms, small manufacturers and typologies in entrepreneurship research. Kathleen Eisenhardt (2012) is recognised for her boundary-spanning research covering innovation research, entrepreneurship research and her advocacy of the abductive process of building theory from case studies. Shaker Zahra (2014) is honoured for the width of his research agenda and specifically for his work on corporate entrepreneurship and his contribution to family business, dynamic capabilities and social entrepreneurship research. Sidney Winter’s (2015) contribution to entrepreneurship and innovation research through evolutionary theories, operational routines and dynamic capabilities concludes the chapter.
The subdomains category in Chapter 7 focuses on five GAER winners who are recognised for their unique and specialised contributions. Ian Macmillan (1999) introduced an international perspective and started the Journal of Business Venturing in 1985. William Gartner (2005) studied new venture creation using the actor–organisation–environment–process framework and focused on entrepreneurship as a phenomenon using narrative theories and methods. The Diana Group (2007) marked the first time the prize was awarded to a group of five researchers (Candida Brush, Nancy Carter, Elizabeth Gatewood, Patricia Greene and Myra Hart) for their work on female entrepreneurship that brought a sense of legitimacy and status to a field that was long neglected in research and public policy. The chapter concludes with the work of Bengt Johannisson (2008), who studied European entrepreneurship from a social capital perspective and for his service to the field, and Hernando De Soto Polar (2017) for his work in the Peruvian context and his landmark findings that the informal economy is more productive than the formal sector and the state.
The final category of the overall programme includes three distinguished scholars who have shaped the field of entrepreneurship. David Storey (1998) is recognised for his extensive national and cross-national programmes. Paul Reynolds (2004) large-scale empirical investigations, led to the US Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics (PSED) initiative and motivated the creation of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) programme in participation with various countries, universities, and research agencies. Finally, the author notes Scott Shane’s (2009) influential work on the individual-opportunity nexus and his versatile contributions that span empirical, theoretical, and methodological domains.
The book provides rich insights into how these GAER winners shaped the discourse in entrepreneurship research and its evolution. The book will help doctoral students complement their readings in the foundations of entrepreneurship course, apart from providing students and researchers in other management disciplines with excellent perspectives on interdisciplinary opportunities in entrepreneurship research.