Entrepreneurship - Methodische Herausforderungen einer jungen Forschungsdisziplin

Even if today's successful companies operating in the market were start-ups at some time, so far, no consensus could be found, if entrepreneurship is to be understood as an independent research discipline. Should entrepreneurship have its own theory based on generally accepted assumptions and constructs or should the field of research rather convince with an integrated perception and interfaces to many related disciplines? The terminological and conceptual difficulties come along with methodological challenges. In addition, data bases in entrepreneurship are often small and difficult to access and therefore restrict the choice of analytical methods. Which methodological problems must be addressed and what opportunities and prospects arise for empirical entrepreneurship research? Based on a literature review and an outline of the state of research, it will be discussed whether entrepreneurship could be established as an independent research discipline. Moreover, the use of data analysis methods to study entrepreneurship are surveyed to stress occuring problems and draw implications for the future of entrepreneurship research, as well as for the practice.