← Search

Contextualizing Entrepreneurship—Conceptual Challenges and Ways Forward

Friederike Welter

Entrepreneurship at Jönköping International Business School (JIBS), P.O. Box 1026, 551 11 Jönköping, Sweden, and TeliaSonera Professorship at Stockholm School of Economics in Riga, Latvia.

Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice 2011

This paper sets out to explore contexts for entrepreneurship, illustrating how a contextualized view of entrepreneurship contributes to our understanding of the phenomenon. There is growing recognition in entrepreneurship research that economic behavior can be better understood within its historical, temporal, institutional, spatial, and social contexts, as these contexts provide individuals with opportunities and set boundaries for their actions. Context can be an asset and a liability for the nature and extent of entrepreneurship, but entrepreneurship can also impact contexts. The paper argues that context is important for understanding when, how, and why entrepreneurship happens and who becomes involved. Exploring the multiplicity of contexts and their impact on entrepreneurship, it identifies challenges researchers face in contextualizing entrepreneurship theory and offers possible ways forward.

DOI
10.1111/j.1540-6520.2010.00427.x
Volume
35 (1)
Pages
165-184
Language
en
Export
BibTeX
Sources
crossref