Entrepreneurship and business history

During the 1940s and 1950s business historians pioneered the study of entrepreneurship. The interdisciplinary Center for Research on Entrepreneurial History, based at Harvard Business School which included Joseph Schumpeter and Alfred Chandler, and its journal Explorations in Entrepreneurial History were key institutional drivers of the research agenda. However the study of entrepreneurship ran into formidable methodological roadblocks, and attention shifted to the corporation, leaving the study of entrepreneurship fragmented and marginal. Nevertheless business historians have made significant contributions to the study of entrepreneurship through their diverse coverage of countries, regions and industries, and - in contrast to much management research over the past two decades - through exploring how the economic, social, organizational, and institutional context matters to evaluating entrepreneurship. This working paper suggests that there are now exciting opportunities for renewing the research agenda on entrepreneurship, building on the strong roots already in place, and benefiting from engaging with advances made in the study of entrepreneurial behavior and cognition.