Handbook of Qualitative Research Methods in Entrepreneurship

by Helle Neergaard, John Parm Ulhøi

Overview

This expansive and practical Handbook introduces the methods currently used to increase the understanding of the usefulness and versatility of a systematic approach to qualitative research in entrepreneurship. It fills a crucial gap in the literature on entrepreneurship theory, and, just as importantly, illustrates how these principles and techniques can be appropriately and fruitfully employed.

The Handbook is underpinned by the belief that qualitative research has the potential to charter hitherto unexplored waters in the field of entrepreneurship and thus contribute significantly to its further advancement. The contributors seek to assist entrepreneurship researchers in making more informed choices and designing more rigorous and sophisticated studies. They achieve this by providing concrete examples of research experiences and tangible 'how to' advice. By clarifying what these research methods entail, how they are currently being used and how they can be evaluated, this Handbook constitutes a comprehensive and highly accessible methodological toolbox.

Dealing with both well-accepted qualitative approaches and lesser-known, rarer and more novel approaches to the study of entrepreneurship, this Handbook will be invaluable to those studying, researching and teaching entrepreneurship.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781843768357
Publisher:	Edward Elgar Publishing
Publication date:	03/26/2007
Series:	Research Handbooks in Business and Management series
Pages:	520
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Edited by Helle Neergaard, Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management and John Parm Ulhøi, Professor in Organization and Management Theory, the Aarhus School of Business, University of Aarhus, Denmark

Table of Contents

Contents:

Foreword
Sara Carter

Introduction: Methodological Variety in Entrepreneurship Research
Helle Neergaard and John Parm Ulhøi

PART I: CHOOSING A VEHICLE
1. The Entrepreneurship Paradigm (I) Revisited
William D. Bygrave

2. Critical Realism: A Suitable Vehicle for Entrepreneurship Research?
Richard Blundel

3. Researching Entrepreneurship as Lived Experience
Henrik Berglund

PART II: STARTING OUT AND GEARING UP
4. Ethnographic Methods in Entrepreneurship Research
Bruce A. Johnstone

5. Building Grounded Theory in Entrepreneurship Research
Markus M. Mäkelä and Romeo V. Turcan

6. An Action Research Approach to Entrepreneurship
Claire Leitch

7. Recognizing Meaning: Semiotics in Entrepreneurial Research
Robert Smith and Alistair R. Anderson

8. Media Discourse in Entrepreneurship Research
Leona Achtenhagen and Friederike Welter

9. A Foucauldian Framework for Discourse Analysis
Helene Ahl

PART III: GAINING SPEED
10. Sampling in Entrepreneurial Settings
Helle Neergaard

11. Catching it as it Happens
Ethel Brundin

12. Techniques for Collecting Verbal Histories
Brian McKenzie

13. Using E-mails as a Source of Qualitative Data
Ingrid Wakkee, Paula D. Englis and Wim During

14. The Scientification of Fiction
Jesper Piihl, Kim Klyver and Torben Damgaard

PART IV: WINDING DOWN AND ASSESSING THE RIDE
15. Assessing the Quality of Qualitative Research in Entrepreneurship
Caroline Wigren

16. A Critical Realist Approach to Quality in Observation Studies
Anne Bøllingtoft

17. Daring to be Different: A Dialogue on the Problems of Getting Qualitative Research Published
Robert Smith and Alistair R. Anderson

18. Avoiding a Strike-out in the First Innings
Candida Brush

Postscript: Unresolved Challenges?
John Parm Ulhøi and Helle Neergaard

Index

Editorial Reviews

'The Handbook of Qualitative Research Methods in Entrepreneurship is an unusually solid and multifaceted book on what qualitative methods have done, are doing and will do in entrepreneurship research. Every serious entrepreneurship scholar should read it. It points at the future!'

Bjorn Bjerke

'There is no hiding behind the ramparts of dry scholarship here. The credibility of the theory being spoken of is not the stuff of constructed proofs, but alignments of critical insight and utility. This is where qualitative work can make a difference to the field, and where this book makes its mark.'

Robin Holt

'. . . the Handbook of Qualitative Research Methods in Entrepreneurship is an important contribution to the field, and should be referenced in any paper using qualitative methodologies to investigate the entrepreneurial phenomenon.'

Craig S. Galbraith

‘I would warmly recommend this unique collection of qualitative methods of entrepreneurship research to both mature and beginning researchers as a menu to choose from for their planned empirical studies. For those who try to get away from only quantitative studies in both business practice and academic research, this book is their chance to find a rich inspiration in reflecting on entrepreneurship as a lived experience using grounded theory and ethnographic, discourse and narrative approaches. It might convince editors of top journals of entrepreneurship research to welcome qualitative research submissions as an indispensable complement to “quantitative only” submissions. This domain is not physics. In bringing together such a variety of experts from so many nationalities in this Handbook, our Danish colleagues are making entrepreneurship research a realistic global venture.’

Jan Ulijn

‘Helle Neergaard and John Parm Ulhøi have compiled a remarkable collection of work that both represents the range of methods and demonstrates the depth of insight that can be achieved through qualitative approaches. This book is not simply a handbook of qualitative research methods, though it well achieves this aim, it is also an important contribution towards the field of entrepreneurship research.’

From the Foreword by Sara Carter

‘The Handbook of Qualitative Research Methods in Entrepreneurship is an unusually solid and multifaceted book on what qualitative methods have done, are doing and will do in entrepreneurship research. Every serious entrepreneurship scholar should read it. It points at the future!’

Björn Bjerke