TY - UNPB

T1 - A network analysis of the individual – opportunity nexus: Convergence in entrepreneurship research?

AU - Thrane, Claus

AU - Blenker, Per

PY - 2010

Y1 - 2010

N2 - This paper analyses the citation pattern around the single most cited article in the entrepreneurship discipline in the last decade – ’The promise of entrepreneurship as a field of resaerch’ by Shane & Venkataraman (2000).  Using a quantitative network analysis five clusters pertaining to different areas of research disseminating from, or somehow inspired by, Shane & Venkataraman (2000) is identified. After performing a simple literary content analysis of the various articles in each cluster, five relatively diverse research areas or clusters emerge. Using measures of centrality it is argued that two of these clusters are relatively more central in the citation network: 1) A cluster associated with aspects of individual cognition and entrepreneurial opportunities, and 2) A cluster associated with meta-theoretical aspects of the entrepreneurship discipline. The final part of the paper performs a literature review of both the Shane and Venkataraman article itself and a number of articles from the two clusters mentioned above. From this analysis two conclusions can be drawn about the citation pattern around Shane & Venkataraman (2000). The article have produced agreement on the idea of an individual-opportunity nexus as the defining aspect of entrepreneurship research, but it has produced fundamental disagreement concerning the particular content of this nexus.

AB - This paper analyses the citation pattern around the single most cited article in the entrepreneurship discipline in the last decade – ’The promise of entrepreneurship as a field of resaerch’ by Shane & Venkataraman (2000).  Using a quantitative network analysis five clusters pertaining to different areas of research disseminating from, or somehow inspired by, Shane & Venkataraman (2000) is identified. After performing a simple literary content analysis of the various articles in each cluster, five relatively diverse research areas or clusters emerge. Using measures of centrality it is argued that two of these clusters are relatively more central in the citation network: 1) A cluster associated with aspects of individual cognition and entrepreneurial opportunities, and 2) A cluster associated with meta-theoretical aspects of the entrepreneurship discipline. The final part of the paper performs a literature review of both the Shane and Venkataraman article itself and a number of articles from the two clusters mentioned above. From this analysis two conclusions can be drawn about the citation pattern around Shane & Venkataraman (2000). The article have produced agreement on the idea of an individual-opportunity nexus as the defining aspect of entrepreneurship research, but it has produced fundamental disagreement concerning the particular content of this nexus.

M3 - Working paper

BT - A network analysis of the individual – opportunity nexus: Convergence in entrepreneurship research?

PB - Institut for Økonomi, Aarhus Universitet

CY - Aarhus

ER -