An Evolutionary Approach to the Theory of Entrepreneurship (original) (raw)

A review of the evolutionary approach to the study of entrepreneurship

International Journal of Management Reviews, 2008

A number of more contextual and process-oriented approaches have been followed recently in entrepreneurial research, including the cognitive approach, the learning approach and the evolutionary approach. This paper reviews the evolutionary approach to the study of entrepreneurship. This includes an overview of evolutionary theory and the arguments behind its relevance to the study of socio-economics systems, as well as a review of the application of evolutionary theory to the study of entrepreneurship at both the population level (population ecology) and the organizational level (strategic choice). The reconciliation of these two perspectives is discussed, and comparisons are made with the cognition-based and learning-based approaches. It is argued in this paper that an evolutionary approach to the study of entrepreneurship leads to more theory-driven research with a strong focus on process and context. In addition, it offers more than both the cognition-based and learning-based approaches because it allows for multi-level analyses of the new venture creation process, encompassing both the population ecology (population level) and strategic choice (organizational level) perspective, and the resultant interactions between both hierarchies, giving valuable insight into the same overall evolutionary process.

Persistence and heterogeneity in entrepreneurship: An evolutionary game theoretic analysis

Journal of Business Venturing, 2011

Studies show that countries exhibit a relatively stable level of entrepreneurial activity. To account for this fact, we adopt an evolutionary game theoretic approach. Based upon the analysis of games that capture essential features of the entrepreneurial phenomenon, we ascertain conditions under which evolutionary stable equilibria will be played by a population consisting of agents who engage in entrepreneurship and agents who do not. We show that entrepreneurship may persist even without assuming strategic complementarities or group selection. Lastly, we explain how information about equilibrium payoffs to self- and paid employment could help address the question of whether entrepreneurs differ from other economic agents.

Entrepreneurship as an Evolutionary Process: Research Progress and Challenges

Recent advances in theory have emphasized a definition of entrepreneurship as an evolutionary process of selection and adaptation. By analyzing 307 empirical articles published in top entrepreneurship journals in the last five years, this paper identifies advances and challenges in three key areas: framing of research questions, data collection and structure, and the measurement of time and space related contexts. In terms of framing research questions, researchers tend to emphasize transitions and performance outcomes, particularly at the firm level. However, transitions from the general population to nascent entrepreneurs, as well as transitions from nascent entrepreneurs to new firms, are under explored. In terms of data, researchers rely too heavily on survey methods and cross-sectional data. Finally, researchers appear to be more comfortable measuring variations in environmental forces across space than across time. Because of major data collection efforts like the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor and the Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics, a potential exists for more sophisticated projects that follow an evolutionary approach to entrepreneurship.

An exploratory framework for Entrepreneurship from an evolutionary perspective

Entrepreneurship research is evolving more than ever (Carlsson et al., 2013). As a research stream that is gaining more and more attention, it is imperative to understand it more deeply, given the relevance of entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship, and businesses in today’s global economy, and under a multidimensional lens. Through an extensive literature review, an exploratory view of its evolutionary perspective was made, from a Darwinian initial point, where the lack of a formal framework was found and therefore a 3-dimensional theoretical model (Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneur and Firm, EEF) is proposed for its study, where the multidimensional context and the involvement that the family generally has, influence the back and forth and iterative relationships that appear between the dimensions, and that is influenced by the evolutionary perspective. The results suggest that there is great interest in the academic field in this evolutionary view, a need to further explore this approach, theoretically and empirically under the relationships the model proposed among the various lines of research in entrepreneurship, family business, economics, and firm theory, population ecology, and strategic choice, as well as in the entrepreneur himself and its entrepreneurial cognition and learning, to develop strategies and public policies that support the organizations and the various stakeholders of the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Many are Called, but Few are Chosen: An Evolutionary Perspective for the Study of Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship, 2007

More than a decade ago, Low and MacMillan identified three elements indispensable to an understanding of entrepreneurial success: process, context, and outcomes. Since their critique, three important advances include (a) a shift in theoretical emphasis from the characteristics of entrepreneurs as individuals to the consequences of their actions, (b) a deeper understanding of how entrepreneurs use knowledge, networks, and resources to construct firms, and (c) a more sophisticated taxonomy of environmental forces at different levels of analysis (population, community, and society) that affect entrepreneurship. Although our knowledge of entrepreneurial activities has increased dramatically, we still have much to learn about how process and context interact to shape the outcome of entrepreneurial efforts. From an evolutionary approach, process and context (strategy and environment) interact in a recursive continuous process, driving the fate of entrepreneurial efforts. Thus, integrating context and process into research designs remains a major challenge. Such integration constitutes a necessary step to a more complete evolutionary approach and a better understanding of entrepreneurial success.

Evolution and the growth process: Natural selection of entrepreneurial traits

Journal of Economic Theory, 2012

This research suggests that a Darwinian evolution of entrepreneurial spirit played a sig-ni…cant role in the process of economic development and the dynamics of inequality within and across societies. The study argues that entrepreneurial spirit evolved non-monotonically in the course of human history. In early stages of development, risk-tolerant, growth promoting traits generated an evolutionary advantage and their increased representation accelerated the pace of technological progress and the process of economic development. In mature stages of development, however, risk-averse traits gained an evolutionary advantage, diminishing the growth potential of advanced economies and contributing to convergence in economic growth across countries.

The eclectic necessity of an evolutionary approach to entrepreneurship

2005

This paper explores that application of evolutionary approaches to the study of entrepreneurship. An eclectic approach that aims to highlight the multiple sources of evolutionary thought that frequently remain outside the boundaries of organizational theorizing is used. It is argued that any evolutionary theory of entrepreneurship must appreciate the foundations of evolutionary thought as much as it must consider the nature entrepreneurship.

Evolution and Entrepreneurship

Perspectives in Entrepreneurship: A Course Text, Palgrave, 2011

‘From so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved’ (Darwin, 1859, p. 490). In the closing lines of Darwin’s Origin of the Species he wonders at the force of evolution in biology, while at the same time putting forward the tantalising possibility that evolutionary forces might be at work in other domains of study. Since the publication of Darwin’s Origin of the Species (Darwin 1859), researchers in domains of study at times far removed from biology have expanded the key principles of Darwinian change to disciplines such as language, psychology, economics, behaviour and culture (Aldrich, 1999; Dennett, 1995; Durham, 1991; Nelson and Winter, 1982; Plotkin, 1994; Richerson and Boyd, 2005; Tooby and Cosmides, 1992). While there are differences in approach amongst these diverse strands of research, a perspective has emerged which has been labelled the Universal or Generalized Darwinist approach (Dawkins, 1983; Hodgson and Knudsen, 2010; Stoelhurst, 2008). Generalized Darwinists argue that at a sufficiently general level of abstraction a core set of general Darwinian principles of variation, selection and retention can be used to describe evolution within a variety of domains (Campbell, 1965; Hodgson and Knudsen, 2004), including biology, psychology, culture and economics. In this way the words of Darwin quoted above might even describe the evolution of different forms of organizations and industries from the simple beginnings of an entrepreneurial start-up in a Schumpeterian style industry birth.