Abstract
The book “Contextualizing Entrepreneurship Theory” by Ted Baker and Friederike Welter takes on the grand challenge of identifying and describing context within the field of entrepreneurship. Baker and Welter observe that entrepreneurship has become narrowly focused on gazelles, unicorns, and archetypal “Silicon Valley models”. Though these are important areas, the authors astutely point out that most entrepreneurs do not resemble these archetypes. Entrepreneurs are a diverse group from diverse environments, and this diversity is not sufficiently accounted for within existing scholarship. Baker and Welter argue that contextualizing entrepreneurship will help entrepreneurship account for these perspectives. In pursuit of these goals, the book is organized into three parts: Understanding Contexts and Entrepreneurship (Part 1), Theorizing Contexts (Part 2), and Studying Contexts (Part 3).
Part one defines context, summarizes how context has been examined in entrepreneurship research, and makes a case for why context is vital to entrepreneurial research. Overall, I interpret two main benefits in accounting for context: (1) the development of models that are more sensitive to the variations in nature (and therefore more realistic) and (2) an improved ability to challenge existing models of entrepreneurship. Applying existing knowledge to new contexts can help expose the weaknesses of previously accepted axioms, opening opportunities for knowledge development. In their review, the authors observe that entrepreneurship research has made a positive move away from examining simplistic “what” and “when” relationships between entrepreneurship variables and the environment. Instead, research is evolving to include more nuanced models of context. For example, research is beginning to account for the interaction between person and environment by considering how the context is construed by the entrepreneur and the entrepreneur is affected by that environment. Yet, despite this advance, the authors argue that there is still more room for improvement. The authors observe that context continues to be treated as a static phenomenon when reality tends to be more dynamic. It is problematic that context is still treated as an environmental variable to be controlled for, and interactions between contextual elements are rarely hypothesized.
Part two develops a theoretical approach to guide scholars through the contextualization of their research. The development of this approach starts with the observation that it is easy to become overwhelmed when deciding what aspects of the environment to include within a study. For instance, should one include elements from the cultural, institutional, psychological, or spatial context? Through guided examples, the authors demonstrate how the theoretical approach of “doing context” through “enacting,” “talking,” and “seeing” can ground the researcher’s understanding of how to identify critical contextual factors. In other words, by approaching context through the entrepreneur’s eyes and mind, the researcher can determine which elements are of the most important and even discover some factors that were not considered initially. This is accomplished through a process of understanding how entrepreneurs view, interpret, think about, and discuss their environment.
By including understudied contexts, like the context of being a woman, living in a rural area, being of low socioeconomic status, or generally not resembling the “Silicone-Valley Model”, researchers can explicitly challenge taken-for-granted assumptions within the field; in this way, contextualization is a tool for identifying problem areas within existing theories. Baker and Welter term what they call the “Critical Process Approach” to describe the use of contextualization to identify taken-for-granted assumptions that “privilege the powerful (e.g., unicorns) and render the powerless silent…” (p. 95). This point deserves emphasis: the approaches discussed in this book can help entrepreneurship research represent greater diversity. Overall, the utility of this approach is easily observable and is sure to become a go-to reference for scholars to come.
Part three demonstrates the practical application of the Critical Process Approach. Several methodological recommendations are made. For example, Baker and Welter constructively criticize current quantitative methods that “control out” diversity rather than integrating it into the models; it is argued that this approach silences people of lesser privilege. Baker and Welter question qualitative methods for generally using only top management to represent the organization instead of including lower-level employees that are likely more familiar with the context in which the organization acts. The authors also recommend several nontraditional techniques for better capturing context, such as linguistic analysis or photographs to better understand and communicate contexts.
Peppered throughout the book are calls for action from reviewers, universities, and researchers; the authors recognize that for the field to embrace the importance of context, many norms and values will need to change. Entrepreneurship scholars will need to recognize the value of taking into account the “underprivileged”. Reviewers will need to recognize the value of the less objective methods that can help capture the subjective experiences within a context. Reward structures will need to shift to put a value on capturing context over “simple” theories. It may be a long journey, but a greater shift toward valuing context within the field of entrepreneurship is worth it.
Overall, the book makes an informative case for why contextualization is essential and how the field can better approach it. Baker and Welter propose a philosophy for approaching context that any researcher would likely find beneficial. The book is written in an approachable manner that even people who are new to academia can understand. Given that balancing contextualization with generalization is something that many fields struggle with, I believe that even researchers outside of entrepreneurship can benefit from reading this book.
Any researcher who reads this book will better understand the history of context in entrepreneurship research, develop an understanding of the importance of context, learn how to approach contextualizing research, and leave inspired to explore further the contribution context can make to theory. As the authors state, “once acknowledging the role of context in entrepreneurship, it is hard to look away” (p. 165).