This single volume includes classic works on the theoretical foundations of entrepreneurship research and provides important groundwork for future investigations. Professor Landstrom and Professor Lohrke have carefully selected the seminal, currently relevant and, in many cases, difficult-to-access studies within the field, covering the entrepreneurial processes of opportunity recognition, evaluation and exploitation. Reflecting the heavily interdisciplinary nature of the research, many of the papers have a basis in the spheres of economics, social sciences and strategic management.

This book historicizes entrepreneurship research, its primary thesis being 'history matters'. Expert contributors discuss the field's long history and explore whether it has developed a mature and comprehensive knowledge base. The intellectual roots of several important theories are then examined in depth because, as entrepreneurship research has become more theory driven, and scholars have borrowed theories from many different fields, it becomes increasingly important to understand their origin. Finally, the book demonstrates how economic history research (for example, the historical and...