Entrepreneurship in action: a neo-institutionalist approach. Theoretical insights and research framework

The methodological aim of the chapter is to propose a methodological framework that could be implemented to investigate the complex phenomenon of entrepreneurship and its embeddedness in a specific context. Under a theoretical point of view, the chapter highlights entrepreneurial practices that can sustain a new venture’s growth. Starting from the strong relationship between entrepreneurial activity and context, the contribute individuates in the concept of “entrepreneurial practice” that is the link between entrepreneurial agency and the microcontext of reference in a double causal relationship: the influence of the microcontext on entrepreneurial activity and, vice versa, the impact of institutional entrepreneurship on the context. The microcontext is defined here as the set of relationships in whose the entrepreneur is embedded. The aim of our research design is threefold: first of all we are interested in investigating the configuration of entrepreneurial practices, as defined in the Theoretical background, that lead to establish new ventures in a given contextual setting. The second issue we are dealing with is the analysis of practices that may lead to a new venture’s growth. In order to do that we need to define growth indicators that are suitable for new ventures and use them to select case studies to be included in our empirical analysis. We are interested both in successful and unsuccessful examples of new ventures because, as illustrated in the chapter, the concept of “success” in new venture could be strongly influenced by entrepreneur’s personal expectations. For these reasons growth is measured both at individual (as entrepreneur’s aspirations and motivations) and firm-level (in terms of traditional indicators of profitability and size). Finally we are interested in analyzing the impacts that entrepreneurial action could have on contextual change, as suggested by neo-institutional approach. The methodological approach chosen for investigating the above research issues is the narrative approach (Larty & Hamilton, 2011) that will allow us for recursively go back to the theory, in a reflective spiral (Anderson, Drakopoulos Dodd & Jack., 2010; Alvesson & Sköldberg, 2000).