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Muppets and gazelles: political and methodological biases in entrepreneurship research

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journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-08, 17:44 authored by Alex Coad, Paul NightingalePaul Nightingale
Despite an almost universally accepted belief outside academia that entrepreneurial activity is a positive driving force in the economy, the accumulated evidence remains largely inconclusive. This article positions the increased interest in entrepreneurship since the 1980s within its historical context and highlights the significant methodological problems with its analysis. Taking these problems into account it reevaluates the performance of entrepreneurial firms in terms of innovation, job creation, economic growth, productivity growth, and happiness to show how both positive and negative interpretations can emerge. A pattern of increasingly positive interpretation is observed as one moves from analysis to policy. To address this bias, the article suggests the single category “entrepreneurial firms” be broken up along a continuum from the large number of economically marginal, undersized, poor performance enterprises to the small number of high performance “gazelles” that drive most positive impact on the economy. This would allow a more realistic evaluation of the impact of entrepreneurs by avoiding a composition fallacy that assigns the benefits of entrepreneurship to the average firm.

Funding

RES 598 25 0054; ESRC-TSB-NESTA-BIS IRC

ES/J008427/1; ESRC-TSB-NESTA-BIS IRC

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Published version

Journal

Industrial and Corporate Change

ISSN

0960-6491

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Issue

1

Volume

23

Page range

113-143

Department affiliated with

  • SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2014-07-02

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2014-08-13

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2014-07-02

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