Grounded Theory and the 'And' in Entrepreneurship Research

Abstract

The paper puts forward the researching of entrepreneurship through the application of grounded theory methodology. Like much business and management research it contends that entrepreneurship research should both embrace the complex processes of enterprise activity and the inherent contextual factors that effect entrepreneurial behaviour. Accounts from other fields of social inquiry have conveyed the worthiness of grounded theory in phenomenological studies. The paper considers grounded theory methodology against the canons of accomplishing worthy social (scientific) inquiry. It addresses grounded theory as a means of emphasising how socially constructed experience is created and given meaning. It concludes that the requisite properties of grounded theory whilst addressing the principles of substantive social inquiry, as in entrepreneurship research, with some contextual and methodological considerations, offers an inductive approach to revealing complex characteristics of enterprise management, and potentially other business areas of inquiry.