From the Metaphor to the Concept of the Entrepreneurial Journey in Entrepreneurship Research

Abstract

The use of the concept and construct of the entrepreneurial journey as a temporal realization of the entrepreneurial process in entrepreneurship research is growing. A ground-breaking role in this development is the essay by McMullen and Dimov (2013), which raised a number of questions and criteria that the construct of the entrepreneurial journey should meet. Their article has been followed by a series of publications that utilize and further develop the concepts of the entrepreneurial journey and its components. Starting with the use of the term in a metaphorical sense to describe the narrative of an entrepreneur’s development path, the entrepreneurial journey is becoming an operationaliz-able variable for the description and measurability of which different dimensions are implemented in addition to time. This monograph aims to provide an insight into the entrepreneurial journey as a research construct in entrepreneurship. To this end, a systematic literature review based on the main databases and search engines spanning the last 40 years (WoS, Scopus, EBSCO, Google Scholar) has been carried out. This systematic overview and analysis of publications, research trends and premises on further developments of the entrepreneurial journey concept as a complex phenomenon suggest different frameworks, approaches and future research challenges. The entrepreneurial journey approach opens up those aspects and dimensions of the dynamics of the entrepreneurial process that have gone unnoticed in the previous studies. These include the need, in addition to time, for a generalized dimension(s) to measure the progression of the entrepreneurial process and journey, as well as linking it to the theories, concepts and research methods used to date. The overview and analysis of some practical exam-ples offer several opportunities for further research on the concept of the entrepreneurial journey and approaches to entrepreneurship studies in general.