Following entrepreneurs to markets: What entrepreneurship theory and market studies can learn from each other.

Abstract

Rationalist approaches of entrepreneurship theory and empiricist studies of markets that draw on Science and Technology Studies and actor-network theory (ANT) have had limited interactions so far and tend to treat each other with suspicion and dismissal. We review both approaches from their respective points of view to identify their differences and misunderstandings, but also their historical, methodological and theoretical commonalities and complementarities. Drawing on an empirical study of e-commerce entrepreneurship in southern England in the mid-2000s that utilised ANT, we articulate the notion of the entrepreneurial market as a promising construct for establishing common ground between entrepreneurship theory and market studies for a more fruitful dialogue.