|
The paper considers
the researching of entrepreneurship through the application of grounded
theory methodology. Like much business and management research it advances
the contention that entrepreneurship research should both embrace the
complex processes of enterprise activity and the inherent contextual
factors that effect entrepreneurial behaviour. Accounts from other fields
of social inquiry have conveyed the worthiness of grounded theory in
phenomenological studies. Exampling entrepreneurship, the paper considers
grounded theory research against the canons of accomplishing worthy social
(scientific) inquiry (for example: trustworthiness, generalisability,
consistency and reproducibility). It addresses grounded theory as a means
of emphasising how socially constructed experience is created and given
meaning.
What is pertinent
to social research, through grounded theory, is that it should seek to
approximate to the context of that being studied; for example the business
enterprise, its actors, their interactions and interrelationships; thus
conveying a conceptual understanding of issues that make up actors
naturalistic world. Exampling one of the cited methodological canons, the
basic question addressed by the notion of trustworthiness, in interpretive
research, is: How can an inquirer persuade his or her audiences that
the research findings of an inquiry are worth paying attention to?
When judging qualitative work, the usual canons of 'good science’
require redefinition in order to fit the realities of qualitative
research. Theory building is not a perfected product
[but an] ever developing entity (Glaser and Strauss, 1967).
The paper concludes
that the requisite properties of grounded theory whilst addressing the
principles of substantive social inquiry, as in entrepreneurship research,
with some contextual and methodological considerations, offers an
inductive approach to revealing complex characteristics of enterprise
management, and potentially other business areas of inquiry.
Keywords:
Grounded Theory, Research, Naturalistic, Canons, Entrepreneurship
Download FULL
PAPER
Return
to Contents |
|
