Philosophical Reflexivity and Entrepreneurship Research

"'Philosophy is inescapable'. This is the powerful mantra and call to action of this authoritative and informative collection of essays. Acting upon the conviction that empirical scrutiny only takes us so far in understanding the full nature of entrepreneurship, this text provides a set of thoughtful, and refreshing commentaries on the different ways in which philosophical assumptions shape entrepreneurship research. Entrepreneurship scholarship will be richer for the reading of it." Denise Elaine Fletcher, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg. "This book offers the reader a variety of philosophical ideas and approaches to spur reflection on taken for granted assumptions about what entrepreneurship is and the ways entrepreneurship scholars understand this phenomenon. The chapters in this book go beyond critiquing current ideas and perspectives, rather, the book opens up important lines of inquiry in such topic areas as: uncertainty, the imagination, social construction, critical realism, and the nature of failure. I expect that many of the insights from this book will provide directions for major avenues of entrepreneurship scholarship over the next decade. Scholars who want clues about the future direction of the entrepreneurship field would be wise to explore this book." William B. Gartner, Bertarelli Foundation Distinguished Professor of Family Entrepreneurship, Babson College, USA

Alain Fayolle is a Professor of entrepreneurship, the founder and Director of the Entrepreneurship Research Centre at EM Lyon Business School, France. Alain published thirty-five books and over one hundred articles. Stratos Ramoglou is an Associate Professor of Strategy, Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Southampton, UK. He holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge, and his research interests include entrepreneurship, organization theory and philosophy of science. Mine Karatas-Ozkan is a Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at Southampton Business School. Her research focuses on social and diversity dimensions of entrepreneurship. Katerina Nicolopoulou is a Senior Lecturer at Strathclyde Business School, UK. Her research focuses on social, sustainable and diversity-based forms of entrepreneurship as well as on the concept of cosmopolitanism as a disposition for developing entrepreneurship.

- Introduction: Reflecting on our philosophical journey Stratos Ramoglou, Mine Karatas-Ozkan, Alain Fayolle and Katerina Nicolopoulou - Applying Philosophy to Entrepreneurship and the Social Sciences Russ McBride - New partial theory in entrepreneurship: explanation, examination, exploitation and exemplification Richard J. Arend - Social constructionism and entrepreneurial opportunity Luke Pittaway, Rachida Aissaoui and Joe Fox - Serious realist philosophy and applied entrepreneurship Lee Martin and Nick Wilson - Critical realism as a supporting philosophy for entrepreneurship and small business studies John Kitching - The other reading: Reflections of postcolonial deconstruction for critical entrepreneurship studies Anna-Liisa Kaasila-Pakanen and Vesa Puhakka - Cruel optimism: the stories of entrepreneurial attachments Natasha Slutskaya, Oliver Mallett and Janet Borgerson - Critiquing and renewing the entrepreneurial imagination Neil A. Thompson - Examining the contributions of Social Science to Entrepreneurship: the cases of Cosmopolitanism and Orientalism Katerina Nicolopoulou and Christine Samy - A Unified Account of the Firm: Deontic Architecture Brian R. Gordon and Russ McBride - Uncertainty under Entrepreneurship Dimo Dimov