Entrepreneurship as practice: systematic literature review of a nascent field

• Published in: Entrepreneurship and regional development Vol. 32; no. 3-4; pp. 281 - 312
• Main Authors: Champenois, Claire, Lefebvre, Vincent, Ronteau, Sébastien
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Routledge 14.03.2020; Taylor & Francis Ltd; Taylor & Francis
• Subjects: Business administration; entrepreneurial practice; entrepreneuring; Entrepreneurship; Entrepreneurship as practice; Humanities and Social Sciences; Literature reviews; materiality; practice turn; processual; relationality; Social sciences; systematic literature review; Systematic review
• ISSN: 0898-5626; 1464-5114
• DOI: 10.1080/08985626.2019.1641975

This paper provides a Systematic Literature Review ('SLR') of the emerging 'entrepreneurship-as-practice' (EaP) research field. It advances EaP as a 'platform of expression' that enriches entrepreneurship research. Following the 'practice turn' in social sciences, entrepreneurship is also interested in this new approach. The goal of this article is to map and critically review the literature within the EaP field. The Systematic Literature Review returned 76 articles contributing closely to EaP. Beyond descriptive analytics, results highlight the main research topics of EaP stream as well as multiple methodologies that connect researchers and participants through various research practices. The paper identifies a spectrum of seven theoretical frameworks underlying EaP studies and puts forward examples of research and empirical contexts to provoke the entrepreneurship research community to study actual practices in their diversity. Lastly, the authors detail in five propositions the promising avenues for future research opened by EaP.