Towards a framework for a comprehensive theory of enterpreneurship

Abstract

In last three decades researchers with diverse disciplinary backgrounds have addressed the phenomenon of entrepreneurship leading to the emergence of multiple and seemingly unrelated theories about the subject. Apparently, no unifying framework exists in entrepreneurship literature that can bring these diverse theories together for developing a comprehensive theory of entrepreneurship. In this paper, an attempt is made to fill this void by developing a conceptual framework of entrepreneurship to guide the theory development of entrepreneurship in this direction. The framework captures the interrelationships among the various elements involved in entrepreneurship, viz., environment, entrepreneur and the resultant organization. A brief discussion is made on how the theories from different schools of entrepreneurhsip research can explain different interlinkages among these elements portrayed in the framework, thus providing a unifying platform to bring all the theories of entrepreneurship together for developing a comprehensive theory of entrepreneurship.