Entrepreneurship Studies

Entrepreneurship has become a key topic in modern society, both for academicians and policy makers. The interest of many politicians and public organizations in the issue is connected with the possibilities to create jobs and to stimulate innovation and economic growth (The Economist, 14 March 1998; Audretsch, 2002). The association between economic growth and successful entrepreneurs keeps on being appealing as shown by the title – “Global Heroes” – of a more recent special issue of The Economist (2009). Indeed, in the last decades there has been an increasing number of studies contributing to the field of entrepreneurship. Notwithstanding the relevant literature body on the subject, “entrepreneurship theory is rather scattered” (Holmquist, 2003, p. 74). The different contributions in this field have their roots in many disciplines, ranging from economics to psychology and history (Casson and Casson, 2014), but generally accepted definitions and theoretical frameworks are still missing. In particular, “the field of entrepreneurship is extremely wide but not as deep” (Landström, 1999) and more research is needed especially in understanding the contextual volatility behind entrepreneurial actions (Casson, 2005).