Methodological issues in international entrepreneurship research☆
Section snippets
Executive Summary
As defined by McDougall and Oviatt (2000, p. 903), international entrepreneurship (IE) is: “…a combination of innovative, proactive and risk-seeking behavior that crosses national borders and is intended to create value in organizations…the study of IE includes research on such behavior and research comparing domestic entrepreneurial behavior in multiple countries.”
This paper reviews and assesses fifty-five empirical studies within the emerging field of IE, providing insight as to the ‘state of
Method
This review is focused on empirical literature representing McDougall and Oviatt's (2000, p. 903) definition of IE as “…a combination of innovative, proactive and risk-seeking behavior that crosses national borders and is intended to create value in organizations…the study of IE includes research on such behavior and research comparing domestic entrepreneurial behavior in multiple countries.”
At a general level, studies eligible for review were those explicitly integrating theory and concepts
Results
As summarized in Table 1, the early empirical literature pertaining to IE began with McDougall's foundation study in 1989, followed by Kolvereid et al. (1993). More studies emerged in 1995/1996, including those published in a special issue of Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice. IE research continued to be somewhat sporadic until 1999, when the first publications from the inaugural McGill IE conference appeared in the Journal of International Marketing. 2000 was a banner year for the field
Implications for IE research
A number of implications emerge for IE researchers. We begin with issues that are relatively strategic in nature, including a discussion of the need for a unifying methodological direction, a multidisciplinary approach, pluralism in research design, and accommodation of the complexity of time in IE research. The paper concludes with operational implications regarding sampling design, data collection, and cross-national equivalence issues.
Conclusion
As the field defined as IE begins to coalesce, our objectives were to review and assess the methodological aspects of the IE literature in order to offer insight as to the ‘state of the art’ of IE methods and discuss the implications for future development of the field. By providing a systematic and thorough review of empirical research defined to fall within McDougall and Oviatt's (2000) widely used definition of IE, we conclude that the field is rich in many dimensions, and in a relatively
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A previous version of this paper was presented at the 2002 Small Business and Enterprise Development Conference, Nottingham, UK.
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