Learning Together: National Differences in Entrepreneurship Research.

This paper explores both similarities and differences in entrepreneurship research across nations and suggests some forces that might narrow the international differences. The author explores four similarities in entrepreneurship research, pointing out the parallels between North America and Europe: (1) Research on entrepreneurship and organizations has developed in partial isolation from one another in both regions, resulting in the duplication of many of the same disputes that occurred earlier in organization theory; (2) A strong normative and prescriptive orientation has guided entrepreneurship research in both regions; (3) Entrepreneurship research in both regions has been more descriptive than theory-driven, although forces of diffusion and borrowing are now raising the salience of causal model building in the field; and (4) In both regions, researchers have focused mainly on established organizations, rather than the actual founding process among start-ups. The author also addresses three differences across nations: (1) North American scholars have traditionally assumed that their research models are universal, whereas European scholars tend to assume that theirs are nation-specific; (2) European researchers have relied more on qualitative fieldwork methods as opposed to the survey research designs favored by North Americans; and (3) European governments have funded substantially more research initiatives than North American governments.