handbook of qualitative research methods in entrepreneurship

516 Pages·2006·1.63 MB·English

HANDBOOK OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
METHODS IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Handbook of Qualitative
Research Methods in
Entrepreneurship
Edited by
Helle Neergaard
Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship and Small Business
Management,the Aarhus School of Business, Denmark
John Parm Ulhøi
Professor in Organization and Management Theory,the
Aarhus School of Business,Denmark
Edward Elgar
Cheltenham,UK • Northampton,MA,USA
© Helle Neergaard and John Parm Ulhøi 2007
All rights reserved.No part of this publication may be reproduced,stored in a
retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means,electronic,
mechanical or photocopying,recording,or otherwise without the prior
permission of the publisher.
Published by
Edward Elgar Publishing Limited
Glensanda House
Montpellier Parade
Cheltenham
Glos GL50 1UA
UK
Edward Elgar Publishing,Inc.
William Pratt House
9 Dewey Court
Northampton
Massachusetts 01060
USA
A catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library
Library ofCongress Cataloguing in Publication Data
Handbook of qualitative research methods in entrepreneurship / edited by
Helle Neergaard,John Parm Ulhøi.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1.Entrepreneurship.2.Entrepreneurship–Research.I.Neergaard,Helle,
1960– II.Ulhøi,John P.
HB615.H2659 2006
338(cid:1).04–dc22 2006011747
ISBN 978 1 84376 835 7 (cased)
Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd,Bodmin,Cornwall
Contents
List of contributors vii
Acknowledgements xiii
Foreword bySara Carter xv
Introduction:Methodological variety in entrepreneurship
research 1
Helle Neergaard and John Parm Ulhøi
PART I CHOOSING A VEHICLE
1. The entrepreneurship paradigm (I) revisited 17
William D.Bygrave
2. Critical realism:a suitable vehicle for entrepreneurship
research? 49
Richard Blundel
3. Researching entrepreneurship as lived experience 75
Henrik Berglund
PART II STARTING OUT AND GEARING UP
4. Ethnographic methods in entrepreneurship research 97
Bruce A.Johnstone
5. Building grounded theory in entrepreneurship research 122
Markus M.Mäkelä and Romeo V.Turcan
6. An action research approach to entrepreneurship 144
Claire Leitch
7. Recognizing meaning:semiotics in entrepreneurial research 169
Robert Smith and Alistair R.Anderson
8. Media discourse in entrepreneurship research 193
Leona Achtenhagen and Friederike Welter
9. A Foucauldian framework for discourse analysis 216
Helene Ahl
v
vi Contents
PART III GAINING SPEED
10. Sampling in entrepreneurial settings 253
Helle Neergaard
11. Catching it as it happens 279
Ethel Brundin
12. Techniques for collecting verbal histories 308
Brian McKenzie
13. Using e-mails as a source of qualitative data 331
Ingrid Wakkee,Paula D.Englis and Wim During
14. The scientification of fiction 359
Jesper Piihl,Kim Klyver and Torben Damgaard
PART IV WINDING DOWN AND ASSESSING THE RIDE
15. Assessing the quality of qualitative research in entrepreneurship 383
Caroline Wigren
16. A critical realist approach to quality in observation studies 406
Anne Bøllingtoft
17. Daring to be different:a dialogue on the problems of getting
qualitative research published 434
Robert Smith and Alistair R.Anderson
18. Avoiding a strike-out in the first innings 460
Candida Brush
Postscript:Unresolved challenges? 477
John Parm Ulhøi and Helle Neergaard
Index 481
Contributors
Leona Achtenhagen holds an Associate Professorship at Jönköping
International Business School,Sweden.Based on a background in strategy
and organization studies,her research interests are mainly related to growth
processes of firms,discourse analyses and media industries.
Helene Ahlis a research fellow at the School of Education and Communi-
cation at Jönköping University, Sweden, and an affiliated researcher at
Jönköping International Business School. Her current research focuses
on discourses of lifelong learning. She has published books and articles
on the motivation concept, empowerment, pricing practices and inter-
organizational learning.Her 2004 book,The scientific reproduction ofgender
inequality, JIBS Dissertation Series, no. 015: JIBS, and Ph.D. dissertation,
for which she received an award at the Academy of Management Critical
Studies Division,was a feminist analysis of entrepreneurship discourses.
Alistair R.Andersonis Professor of Entrepreneurship and Director of the
Centre for Entrepreneurship at Aberdeen Business School,Scotland,UK.
After some years of starting and running small businesses, his curiosity
about entrepreneurial people drove him to study entrepreneurship at
Stirling University.Unfortunately he found that rather than answering his
initial questions, he simply found that there were many more interesting
questions! He is still trying to answer some of them,especially in the social
realms of entrepreneurship. Current themes being explored are social
capital,social constructions and associated topic areas.
Henrik Berglundrecently received his Ph.D.in Technology Management and
Economics from Chalmers University of Technology,Gothenburg,Sweden.
He is currently engaged in a number of research projects,including a com-
parative study of the behaviours and strategies of early-stage venture capital
firms in California and Nordic countries.He teaches entrepreneurship and
qualitative methodology in various masters and Ph.D.programmes.
Richard Blundelis a senior lecturer at Brunel University,UK and a member
of Brunel Research in Enterprise, Innovation, Sustainability and Ethics
(BRESE). Current research interests include the role of entrepreneurial
networks in technological innovation, business historical perspectives on
vii
viii Contributors
industrial dynamics,and emerging models of socially and environmentally
oriented enterprise. He has published related articles in Entrepreneurship
and Regional Development, Industry and Innovation and the Journal of
Small Business and Enterprise Development.Richard is also the author of
Effective Organisational Communication: Perspectives, Principles and
Practices (FT Prentice Hall,2004).
Anne Bøllingtoft is Assistant Professor at the Department of Management,
the Aarhus School ofBusiness,Denmark.In 2005,she handed in her thesis
titled ‘The Bottom-up Business Incubator: A Collaborative Approach to
(Entrepreneurial) Organizing?’Her research area covers entrepreneurship
with specific focus on business incubators and new organizational struc-
tures and forms.
Ethel Brundin is Assistant Professor in the Department of Entrepreneur-
ship, Marketing and Management at Jönköping International Business
School, Sweden. Her research interests include micro processes of new
business ventures,family businesses and different areas of strategic leader-
ship.She is currently involved in a set of projects in which emotions are in
focus.She is project manager for an international research project between
Sweden and South Africa on entrepreneurial learning and sustainability.
She has published in international journals and edited books on immi-
grant,ethnic and social entrepreneurship as well as strategic leadership.She
was an entrepreneur before entering academia.
Candida Brush is Professor of Entrepreneurship and holder of the
President’s chair in Entrepreneurship at Babson College, Wellesley, MA,
USA. She also serves as Chair of the Entrepreneurship Division and is
Director ofthe Ph.D.programme.She was formerly Associate Professor of
Strategy and Policy Director ofthe Council for Women’s Entrepreneurship
and Leadership (CWEL), and Research Director for the Entrepreneurial
Management Institute at Boston University, USA. She is a founding
member of the Diana Project International, a research collaborative of
scholars from 20 countries studying finance strategies of women entrepre-
neurs. Her current research investigates resource acquisition strategies in
emerging organizations, the influence of gender in business start-up, and
growth strategies of women-led ventures.
William D. Bygrave is the Frederic C. Hamilton Professor for Free
Enterprise. He joined The Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at Babson
College, Wellesely, MA, USA in 1985 and directed it from 1993 to 1999.
He was also the director of the annual Babson College–Kauffman
Contributors ix
Foundation Entrepreneurship Research Conference in 1994 and 1995.He
teaches and researches entrepreneurship,specifically financing of start-up
and growing ventures.He has written more than 50 papers on topics that
include venture capital, entrepreneurship, nuclear physics, hospital phar-
maceuticals and philosophy of science.
Sara Carter is Professor of Entrepreneurship in the Department of
Management and Organization and Director of the Entrepreneurship
Centre at the University of Stirling, Scotland, UK. Prior to her Stirling
appointment in September 2005,Sara was Professor of Entrepreneurship
at the University of Strathclyde, Scotland, UK. Sara has undertaken
several research projects in the area ofsmall business and entrepreneurship.
Her publications include two textbooks OEEnterprise and Small Business:
Principles,Practice and Policy(2001,2006 2nd edition) and OEWomen as
Entrepreneurs(1992) in addition to several academic and policy papers on
entrepreneurship and small business. Sara is editor of Entrepreneurship
Theory and Practice and a member of the editorial boards of nine peer-
reviewed journals.
Torben Damgaard is Associate Professor at the Southern University of
Denmark.His research areas include business-to-business marketing,strat-
egy and methodology. He has participated in several research projects in
cooperation with both advisers and companies.In these studies interactive
research methods are used to develop theories and methods.
Wim Duringis Emeritus Professor of Innovatory Entrepreneurship at the
Dutch Institute of Knowledge Intensive Entrepreneurship at Twente
University.He holds a Ph.D.from the University of Enschede and is cur-
rently enjoying retirement.
Paula D. Englis is Associate Professor at the Campbell School of
Management at Berry College, Mount Berry, GA, USA, and at the Dutch
Institute of Knowledge Intensive Entrepreneurship.She holds a Ph.D.from
the University of Memphis, TN, USA. Her research has been published
in numerous journals, such as the Academy of Management Review,
Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice,Family Business Reviewand Journal of
Small Business Management.Her research focuses on strategic management
with an international emphasis, including application in entrepreneurship,
technology and knowledge management,and value chain management.
Bruce A. Johnstone is completing a Ph.D. at Auckland University of
Technology,NewZealand.HehasadegreeinBroadcastingCommunications
x Contributors
andreceivedhisMBAfromHenleyManagementCollege,UK,andaPost
Graduate Certificate in Business Research from Waikato University, New
Zealand.HeisalsoaFellowof theNewZealandInstituteof Management.
His Ph.D. research uses ethnographic methods to study how advisory and
support services associated with New Zealand’s Growth and Innovation
Frameworkaffectagroupof entrepreneurs.
Kim Klyver recently received his Ph.D. from the University of Southern
Denmark and is shortly taking up a position as Westpac Post Doctoral
Fellow in Entrepreneurship at Swinburne University of Technology,
Australia.He works with entrepreneurship,social networks and small busi-
ness management. In his Ph.D. research he focused on how independent
entrepreneurs’social networks develop during the entrepreneurial process.
He works with both quantitative and qualitative research methods.
Claire Leitch is a senior lecturer at Queen’s University, Belfast, UK. Her
research interests include developing an understanding of the learning
company and applying it as a company development process;the applica-
tion of action learning and other client-centred learning approaches,within
entrepreneurial and executive education and development;gaining a deeper
knowledge of the dynamics of leadership in the process of organizational
transformation; entrepreneurial learning and business development; and
developing a fuller understanding of the technology transfer process.
Markus M.Mäkeläis Professor ofSoftware Product Development (acting)
at the University of Turku,Finland,and works part time as research direc-
tor at Helsinki University of Technology,from where he obtained a Ph.D.
in Strategy and International Business.His domain of research is software
business, wherein he studies issues of strategy, technology management,
entrepreneurship,internationalization and venture capital finance.Markus
has won the Haynes Prize for the Most Promising Scholar of the Academy
ofInternational Business and the Eldridge Haynes Memorial Trust.He has
previously worked at Stanford University, CA, USA, Helsinki School of
Economics and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter.
Brian McKenzie is Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship at California
State University,East Bay,USA.His research and teaching draws heavily
on his 30 years as a successful entrepreneur and small business manager.
Brian received his BA from the University of British Columbia in 1974,his
MBA from the University of Victoria,British Columbia,in 1997 and his
Ph.D.from the University of Victoria in 2003.He also holds a certificate
of qualification as a master boat-builder.Brian has been awarded the 1999