Title: Entrepreneurship: in between what? On the ''frontier'' as a discourse of entrepreneurship research

Authors: Chris Steyaert

Addresses: Research Institute for Organizational Psychology, University of St. Gallen, Switzerland

Abstract: This paper examines the discourses scholars in the field of entrepreneurship use to reflect upon the developments of this discipline and claims these discourses circle around three different versions of the notion of ||frontier||, namely as ||limit||, ||horizon|| and ||in-between||. While the arguments to limit and focus the field outnumber the horizon-discourse, marking a discipline-to-come, the paper argues to conceive the field of entrepreneurship as a border zone. Concrete activities that can nurture such a border zone are discussed and illustrated: reconsidering and reframing earlier work, connecting current research tracks into focused communities and continuing to invest in experimenting with new and daring approaches.

Keywords: entrepreneurship research; frontiers; limits; horizons; experimenting.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2005.006066

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2005 Vol.2 No.1, pp.2 - 16

Published online: 30 Jan 2005 *

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