Glob Bus Org Exc - 2023 - Ratten - Entrepreneurship Definitions Opportunities Challenges and Future Directions

DOI: 10.1002/joe.
22217
TH EORETICAL ARTICLE
Entrepreneurship: Definitions, opportunities, challenges,

and future directions
Vanessa Ratten
Department of Management and

Marketing, La Trobe Business School, La Abstract
Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia Entrepreneurship as a field of study has many sub-dimensions due to its useful-
Correspondence
ness in society, which makes it difficult to gain a holistic understanding of its key
Department of Management and elements. The aim of this article is to explore how to define entrepreneurship
Marketing, La Trobe Business School, La by focusing on different areas of entrepreneurship in terms of definitions and
Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia.
Email: v.ratten@latrobe.edu.au research opportunities in order to challenge conventional practices. Each area of
entrepreneurship is discussed with the goal of exploring new research questions
and methodological approaches that are currently lacking in the entrepreneur-
ship discourse and can be refined through future research activity. This enables
future research directions to be identified regarding entrepreneurship in gen-
eral and specific types of entrepreneurship thereby contributing to research and
practice about the importance of entrepreneurship in society.
KEYWORDS
entrepreneurship definitions, new business creation, small business, technological change,
theory development
1 INTRODUCTION explored (Kuhn and Galloway, 2015; Ratten 2014). This will
enable entrepreneurship to be contextualized and further
Entrepreneurship is a significant topic in business man- stimulate research (Ratten 2016).
agement research but also impacts other fields such as One of the most well known and cited definitions
science, the arts, and engineering (Kirzner, 2009). It is of entrepreneurship is by Shane and Venkataraman
a field of study that has been legitimized by the volume (2000:218) who defined it as “how, by whom and with what
of articles and books on the topic (Apostolopoulos et al., effects opportunities to create future goods and services
2021). In most conceptualizations of entrepreneurship, it are discovered, evaluated and exploited.” This definition
involves creating value thereby having a positive effect in focused on opportunity recognition being at the core of any
society (Jones et al., 2020). Although for many depend- entrepreneurship definition but it can be worded in dif-
ing on their position in society entrepreneurship can have ferent ways (Lounsbury and Glynn, 2001). This includes
a detrimental and consequently negative effect (Ratten, focusing on new markets or technology discoveries (Phan
2019). Entrepreneurship has received a large amount of et al., 2009). The ability to pursue an opportunity stems
attention in the technology and tourism area but less so in from the person or people involved in the activity, which
areas such as sport (Ratten 2021; Jones et al., 2020). Accord- means the people in terms of human capital as well as mar-
ingly, it is important to focus on new areas of research ket environment is important in entrepreneurship (Meek
related to entrepreneurship that have not yet been fully et al., 2010). More recent definitions of entrepreneurship
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the
original work is properly cited.
© 2023 The Authors. Global Business and Organizational Excellence published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.
GBOE. 2023;42:79–90. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/joe 79

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80 RATTEN
highlight the process element which is a useful way to The contributions of this paper center around con-
understand the way innovation and creativity in business tributing to a better understanding of entrepreneurship.
ventures evolve over time (Nambisan, 2017). An example Through a systematization of the entrepreneurship liter-
of the process definition is Elia et al. (2020:3) who defined ature, the current and future knowledge structure of the
it as “process of identifying potential business opportu- field is identified. This will help in assessing the gaps in
nities and exploiting them through the recombination of the field through acknowledging key trends.
existing resources or the creation of new ones to develop
and commercialize new products and services.” In this
article entrepreneurship is defined through both an oppor- 2 ENTREPRENEURIAL CHANGES
tunity seeking and process perspective as:
Entrepreneurship as a word conveys different meanings
the identification of business-related opportuni- depending on the situation. For many it is associated with
ties through a process of using existing, new or small business although this has changed with the real-
a recombination of resources in an innovative ization there is more to entrepreneurship. Fu et al (2019:1)
and creative way state “entrepreneurship and its derivatives have influenced
all industries and levels of society, because it deals with
The rules of the environment in terms of regula- innovation, competitiveness, productivity, wealth genera-
tion effects business creation (Rashid and Ratten, 2021). tion and job creation.” Things have significantly changed
Moreover, the macro-culture that includes institutional in the last decade as a result of technological innova-
frameworks influences the ability of entrepreneurs. Thus, tions (Ratten, 2019). The way people communicate through
entrepreneurs based on their human capital will inte- online devices has altered society. Some things are still
grate as best they can into the market environment. the same though in terms of people wanting to act in an
Within the business environment there is a mix of pub- entrepreneurial manner. This includes proactive business
lic and private entities that influence market activity behavior regarding implementing changes. The ultimate
(Ratten, 2020a). An entrepreneur may know how best outcome of entrepreneurship varies over time with new
to establish their business idea based on their connec- technological based ventures tending to have a greater
tions within the market (Ratten, 2020b). Thus, there is immediate effect than long-term more incremental inno-
a personal dimension to the process of entrepreneurship. vations The internet and digital technology revolution
Entrepreneurs may have common characteristics such as changed the way entrepreneurship was defined. Due to
determination and resilience that help them in the mar- new types of business models entering the marketplace
ket (Ratten, 2021). In addition, being proactive and having such as born global and start-ups the role of entrepreneur-
a need to achieve can help entrepreneurs (Ratten and ship in society altered. As a consequence, entrepreneur-
Jones, 2021). ship was defined in a more holistic manner taking into
The importance of entrepreneurship in society has account individual, corporate as well as social forms of new
become increasingly relevant in the post COVID-19 envi- business activity.
ronment. Even before the pandemic began interest in Initially most people viewed entrepreneurship as the
entrepreneurship was increasing due to its relevance result of individual rather than collective effort. This was
(Solomon and Mathias, 2020; Zhou, 2004). Despite the due to the myth of the hero entrepreneur who took on the
popularity of entrepreneurship there is still an ongoing world and won. Entrepreneurs were stereotyped as being
debate about what it really means (Ratten and Usmanij, solo business owners that started then developed their
2021). This is due to the word ‘entrepreneurship’ mean- business idea. This normally meant growing their business
ing different things depending on the context (Ratten et from a small local endeavor to a global phenomenon. In
al, 2017). For many entrepreneurship is similar to innova- the past the steps to growth for an entrepreneur normally
tion but involves a business venture. For others it refers meant establishing their business via a store or factory then
to a mindset or way of behaving (Solomon and Math- explaining it gradually to other states and countries. The
ias, 2020). Due to the multiple ways, entrepreneurship advent of the internet and electronic commerce changed
can be interpreted the current literature on entrepreneur- this as it became easier to sell products to overseas mar-
ship lacks a key article that explores its definitions in kets. Many entrepreneurs are still sole owner managers of
terms of opportunities, challenges, and future research. their business ventures.
This article does this as a way of unifying what is currently The exact nature of entrepreneurship can be hard
being said about entrepreneurship and explaining how it to capture through traditional measurement instruments
should or can be discussed in an academic and practical (Ratten, 2014). This is due to it occurring in different and
setting. unusual ways. Surveys conducted on entrepreneurship
RATTEN 81
topics rely on people recalling their experience but with business results when done in a financially efficient way.
time this might be hard to do. Interviews are likewise This means the entrepreneur is disadvantaged in some
based on past experiences and there are few research stud- way that influences their ability to make an income. Cor-
ies focusing on the now in terms of immediate effects. porate entrepreneurship involves business ventures that
This may change with artificial intelligence and real- involve large-sized organizations. Usually this refers to
time tracking changing the way researchers measure businesses with more than 100 employees but it can vary
phenomenon. depending on the context. Due to the popularity of large
The term entrepreneurship can be used at different lev- businesses in the media many types of entrepreneurship
els of analysis. At the individual level it refers to how involve corporations. Thus, this type of entrepreneurship
people become entrepreneurs. This means the empha- has been extensively studied in the literature but due to
sis is on personal characteristics and what environmental the changing nature of business based on digital technol-
or birth factors influence entrepreneurial activity. The ogy and hybrid working forms, there is new research being
research on individual entrepreneurs has mostly focused produced all the time on this topic.
on developed country entrepreneurs although there is
more emphasis now on emerging and developing coun-
try entrepreneurs. At the societal level entrepreneurship 3.2 COVID-19 entrepreneurship
involves explaining social change caused by new business
ventures. Increasingly due to an emphasis on environmen- COVID-19 entrepreneurship is a new kind of entrepreneur-
tal and sustainability issues, entrepreneurship is needing ship that specifically refers to new business activity and
to have a societal effect. This means focusing on for innovation that occurred during or because of the COVID-
profit activity as well as non-profit or philanthropy. At the 19 crisis. This includes any kind of change that resulted
firm level entrepreneurship involves studying enterprise from the alterations in living and working conditions.
behavior. Much is still yet to be known about how and why the
COVID-19 pandemic influenced entrepreneurial behavior
but it is an interesting area of study. Craft entrepreneur-
3 TYPES OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP ship involves business activity that involves the hands or
use of handheld instruments to make something. It refers
There are many different types of entrepreneurship with to knitting, sewing, woodwork, metalwork, and other kind
some more popular than others. Table 1 states the defi- of activity that is intricate and takes individual attention. It
nitions of different types of entrepreneurship in terms of is an older form of entrepreneurship that has evolved over
their meanings. This helps to provide an overview of what time with the introduction of new materials and technol-
each kind of entrepreneurship involves and how it is differ- ogy. The idea of craft entrepreneurship is that it does not
ent to other types of entrepreneurship (Ratten, 2016). The involve mass-made products that are the same but rather
main types of entrepreneurship will now be discussed in acknowledges the individualization and personalization of
terms of their definition and application to the business the craft industry.
environment.
3.3 Creative entrepreneurship

3.1 Artisan entrepreneurship
Creative entrepreneurship refers to the arts and entertain-
Artisan entrepreneurship involves the use of artistic abili- ment industry types of innovative business activity. This
ties to produce new products and services. Normally this means the emphasis is on doing something outside the box
refers to some kind of home-made or handicraft that is and not typical to what currently exists in the marketplace.
distinctive in its design. Thus, the artisan entrepreneur Increasingly creative entrepreneurs are spurring inven-
makes each product in a unique way that differs to oth- tions in other areas of society. Cultural entrepreneurship
ers. Examples of artisan entrepreneurs can include craft is similar in some ways to creative entrepreneurship
brewers, pottery makers, and jewelry designers. Base of but focuses on traditions and heritage. Thereby empha-
the pyramid entrepreneurship focuses on innovative busi- sizing the need to continue local folklore and customs
ness activities for people living on low wages. Sometimes in business products and services. Developing coun-
this is referred to as subsistence entrepreneurship or neces- try entrepreneurship involves innovative and risk-taking
sity entrepreneurship due to people making use of what business activity within countries that are growing but still
they have in order to obtain an income. Nevertheless at a lower level of income level than developed countries.
base of the pyramid entrepreneurship can still yield good Typically, this involves subsistence entrepreneurship
82 RATTEN
TA B L E 1 Definitions of different types of entrepreneurship.

Type of entrepreneurship Definition
Artisan Ratten (2022:1) define it as “individuals who produce and sell products or services which possess a
distinct artistic value resulting from a high degree of manual input”
Base of the pyramid Is defined as entrepreneurship occurring amongst people with low income or scarcity of resources.
Corporate Sharma and Chrisman (1999:18) define it as “the process whereby an individual or a group of
individuals, in association with an existing organization, create a new organization or instigate
renewal or innovation within that organization.”
COVID-19 Is defined as innovative business activity related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Craft Ratten (2022:101) define it as “the process of utilizing craft-based methods to make products and
services.”
Creative Is defined as any kind of business behavior that is done in an inventive and different way.
Cultural Is defined as business activity with a cultural connection.
Developing countries Is defined as business innovation related to countries that are considered as developing.
Digital Elia et al (2020:3) define it as a “subcategory of entrepreneurship in which some or all of what would be
physical in the traditional settings has been digitized based on the use of digital media and
technologies.”
Education Is defined as innovative business activity that involves the education sector.
Emerging economies Is defined as entrepreneurship in countries that have high growth rates.
Entrepreneurial ecosystem Elia et al (2020: 3) define it as “Set of entrepreneurial actors including potential customers and
suppliers, universities and research centers, social and cultural operators, institutions and policy
makers, large companies, innovative startups and entrepreneurs, experts and professionals, investors,
and a pool of talented people”.
Environmental Is defined as proactive business activity that incorporates some kind of environmental well-being
initiative.
Ethnic Is defined as entrepreneurship that involves specific cultural groups that share a common trait.
Family Is defined as entrepreneurship amongst a group of people with some form of bond.
Female Ratten (2017:116) define it as “women who start a business, are involved in managerial decisions, and
own a majority of the business.”
Fitness Is defined as innovations in business that involve the fitness industry.
Frugal Michaelis et al (2020: 4) define it as “an individual trait reflecting one’s general preference to (a)
conserve resources and (b) apply an economic rationale in the acquisition of resources (i.e., assessing
the opportunity cost of newly acquired resources).”
Gender Is defined as innovative business activity based on the gender of the entrepreneur.
Governmental Is defined as governmental related policy and procedure based on entrepreneurial innovation.
Health Is defined as risk taking and innovation in the health business sector.
Heritage Is defined as entrepreneurship involving some kind of heritage element.
Immigrant Is defined as entrepreneurship involving people who are born outside of their residing country.
International McDougall & Oviatt (2000: 9020) define it as “a combination of innovative, proactive, and risk seeking
behavior that crosses national borders and is intended to create value in organizations.”
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, Is defined as innovative and risk-taking business activity conducted by the LGBTQ+ community.
transexual, and queer
(LGBTQ+)
Minority Dana & Vorobeva (2021: 17) define it as “a self-employment enterprise run by a person who is not
typical of the mainstream society and can therefore be described by the adjective minority”
Music Is defined as entrepreneurial activity related to the music industry.
Poverty Is defined as entrepreneurship that analyses entrepreneurs at lower income levels.
Small business Is defined as innovative business activity involving businesses with less than 50 employees.
Social Mair and Marti (2004:3) define it as “a process consisting in the innovative use and combination of
resources to explore and exploit opportunities, that aims at catalysing social change by catering to
basic human needs in a sustainable manner.”
(Continues)
RATTEN 83
TA B L E 1 (Continued)
Type of entrepreneurship Definition
Sport (Ratten, 2010a:559) define it as “a sports-related organization acting innovatively in a business context”
Sustainable Is defined as entrepreneurship that incorporates a long-term perspective to economic, social, and
environmental change.
Technological Is defined as innovative business activity involving technology.
Venture financing Is defined as money spent on investments in new business ventures.
but it can also involve high-technology forms of has been more emphasis in society in general on
entrepreneurship. entrepreneurship education due to its impact on regional
and international development levels (Mandrinos and
Lim, 2023). Emerging economy entrepreneurship focuses
3.4 Digital entrepreneurship on analyzing entrepreneurship in economic environ-
ments that are growing. Normally this means there
Digital entrepreneurship evolved from the usage of dig- is a change in living and social conditions, which is
ital technologies in the marketplace. In recent years paving the way for new kinds of business ventures to
mobile commerce usage has increased due to social and emerge.
physical distancing requirements from the COVID-19 pan-
demic (Cimperman, 2023). At the same time, increased
3.6 Entrepreneurial ecosystems
digitalization rates have made it easier for new startups to
develop. Digital entrepreneurship is defined as “the pro-
Entrepreneurial ecosystems involve environments that
cess of entrepreneurial creation of digital value through
are conducive to entrepreneurial behavior and action.
the use of various socio-technical digital enablers to sup-
There has been an increased interest in entrepreneurial
port effective acquisition, processing, distribution, and
ecosystems due to the realization that entrepreneurship
consumption of digital information” (Sahut, Iandoli and
often requires the input of diverse entities in society. An
Teulon, 2021:1162). Entrepreneurship is changing due to
entrepreneurial ecosystem normally has a range of play-
new technology such as big data, analytics, social media,
ers such as businesses, individuals, government entities,
and crowdfunding altering business practices. This is
and others that make it function. Within an ecosystem
resulting in new forms of entrepreneurship such as dig-
environment there are power dynamics that influence
ital entrepreneurship arising that recognize new ways of
how and why entities collaborate or compete. This nor-
doing business. Digital entrepreneurship recognizes that
mally means an ecosystem adjusts to behavior in terms of
existing businesses are being transformed through digital
entrepreneurial activity.
capabilities (Gupta and Bamel, 2023).
Digital technologies such as mobile and cloud solutions
are enabling improved business practices. Increased dig- 3.7 Environmental entrepreneurship
ital capabilities are enabling ecosystem environments to
thrive. Digital ecosystems are defined as “a self-organizing, Environmental entrepreneurship refers to innovative busi-
scaleable and sustainable system composed of hetero- ness activity that relates to the environment. Often this can
geneous digital entities and their interrelations focusing be combined with other types of entrepreneurship such
on interactions among entities to increase system util- as technological and sport depending on the situation.
ity, gain benefits and promote information sharing, inner Environmental entrepreneurship is similar to sustainable
and inter-cooperation and system innovation” (Li et al, entrepreneurship but focuses more on conducting busi-
2012:119). ness activities that have an environmental benefit. This
means they are helping to make the world a better place by
emphasizing the positive ways businesses can contribute
3.5 Education entrepreneurship to society.
Education entrepreneurship involves analyzing business

activity related to learning and knowledge dissemination 3.8 Ethnic entrepreneurship
(Liao et al, 2022). It is a popular area of entrepreneur-
ship study that combines looking into pedagogy with Ethnic entrepreneurship involves understanding how peo-
information acquisition techniques. Increasingly there ple of different cultures become entrepreneurs. This is an
84 RATTEN
interesting area of study as it includes study of religion, 3.12 Government entrepreneurship

location and other factors related to ethnicity and business
ventures. Family entrepreneurship involves understand- Government entrepreneurship can also be linked to polit-
ing how others with a deep bond to an individual help in ical or public entrepreneurship. This means focusing on
their entrepreneurial endeavors. The definition of family how policy and regulations influence the development
is constantly evolving based on societal views, so a broad of entrepreneurial business ventures (Islam, 2023). Some-
perspective is often taken in entrepreneurship studies. times government entrepreneurship is referred to as public
Although much of the emphasis is on a person’s biological entrepreneurship due to the emphasis of local councils
family or family through marriage. and other regulators on entrepreneurship. Government
entrepreneurship tends to have a non-profit or community
motive but can be for-profit.
3.9 Female entrepreneurship
Female entrepreneurship seeks to understand how 3.13 Health entrepreneurship

females because of their biology develop entrepreneurial
ventures (Hossain et al, 2023). Due to changing women’s Health entrepreneurship has become a popular area of
changing position in the workforce there has been more study due to the COVID-19 pandemic requiring new busi-
emphasis on female entrepreneurship and gender equality ness thinking (Mishra and Pandey, 2023). This means
(Jaim, 2021). Whilst female or women’s entrepreneurship thinking about how health related businesses such as
is now a key part of overall entrepreneurship studies there new startups and related technology develops (Oliveira et
is still a need to research further into gender differences. al, 2023). More emphasis is being placed on how health
This is due to changing workplace policy and impact on entrepreneurship relates to other types of entrepreneur-
the number of females going into entrepreneurial activ- ship such as social or educational entrepreneurship.
ities. This can include either as a startup entrepreneur This is due to the way health entrepreneurship often
or being part of an organization’s overall entrepreneurial depends on research and investment from other sectors of
ventures. society.
3.10 Fitness entrepreneurship

3.14 Heritage entrepreneurship
Fitness entrepreneurship could be considered part of sport
Heritage entrepreneurship seeks to understand how her-
entrepreneurship but is a type of entrepreneurship in its
itage in terms of history and culture affects innovative
own right. This means it is useful in understanding the
business ventures. This is important in understanding how
role of fitness in new business ventures that have become
location and place influence entrepreneurial intentions
popular with the digital economy. Digital technology espe-
in a community (Knezovic, 2023). Immigrant or refugee
cially mobile applications, websites, and blogs have paved
entrepreneurship involves focusing on people who are liv-
the way for more emphasis on fitness entrepreneurship
ing outside their country of birth in terms of their business
as a specific type of entrepreneurship. This is due to the
activity. This can also involve transnational entrepreneurs
increased interest in lifestyle entrepreneurship and the
who reside between countries.
resulting increased interest in activities such as yoga in
society.
3.15 International entrepreneurship
3.11 Frugal entrepreneurship
International entrepreneurship involves innovative busi-
Frugal entrepreneurship involves thinking about innova- ness activity that takes place outside an entrepreneurs
tive business ventures that are conducted using scarce home country. It is a popular form of entrepreneur-
resources. Sometimes this is also referred to as jugaard ship due to its emphasis on born globals which are
innovation in terms of using available materials in times of companies that are international from the start. Les-
resource scarcity. Gender entrepreneurship highlights the bian, queer, bisexual, and transexual entrepreneurship
way gender may or may not influence innovative business involves business activity based on sexuality. It recognizes
activity. This idea behind gender entrepreneurship is that that humans might have certain behavioral traits that
biology in terms of how people live and behave influences influence the type of business activity they are involved
business dealings. in.
RATTEN 85
3.16 Minority entrepreneurship utilized by entrepreneurs. Recent technological innova-

tions such as blockchain have influenced the direction of
Minority entrepreneurship is sometimes referred to as research related to venture financing.
disadvantaged entrepreneurship as it involves a select
percentage of the overall population. This means the
entrepreneurs have unique characteristics that can be 4 FUTURE RESEARCH IDEAS
based on physical, intellectual, or cultural differences.
Music entrepreneurship involves business activity that has There is still much yet to know about how and why
a music dimension to it. It can include the use of new tech- entrepreneurship is conducted in society. Whilst there has
nologies in which music and related business ventures are been a huge advancement generally in the type and depth
built. Poverty entrepreneurship is about innovative busi- of entrepreneurship activities explored in the literature,
ness activity amongst low-income and homeless people. It there is still someway to go. Future research needs to
is a newer form of entrepreneurship although it has been continue focusing on current entrepreneurial conceptual-
around for some time. izations but also take into account recent crises such as
the COVID-19 pandemic in studies. This means focusing
on crisis and resilience in entrepreneurship to under-
3.17 Small business entrepreneurship stand how new behaviors are developed. Table 2 below
states some future research questions and methodological
Small business entrepreneurship involves the study approaches related to different types of entrepreneurship.
of how small business owners and managers utilize Artisan entrepreneurship whilst being an old and tradi-
entrepreneurial thinking. Traditionally this has been tional form of entrepreneurship has seen a resurgence in
the focus of most entrepreneurship studies. Social recent years due to working from home requirements and
entrepreneurship involves some kind of business activity an interest in the craft industry. Future research needs to
that has an altruistic goal. This normally means it involves focus more on linking artisan entrepreneurship to other
non-profit initiatives that are combined with for-profit forms of entrepreneurship such as the base of the pyramid
activity. It is a popular form of entrepreneurship due to to understand how family and heritage influences busi-
the need to balance different kinds of objectives in society. ness development. Due to the increase in websites such
as Etsy there could be more focus on corporate forms of
entrepreneurship that tie into the craft or creative econ-
3.18 Sport entrepreneurship omy. This would be useful in order to understand cultural
connotations of entrepreneurship and the difference in the
Sport entrepreneurship is a relatively new form of types of products or services offered based on location. It
entrepreneurship that is rapidly gaining ascendancy in the would be interesting to focus more on developing countries
literature. It is usually included in the management styles as much of the existing entrepreneurship research tends
of athletes, teams, and coaches involved in sport. It can to focus on North America and Europe. Examples of new
occur at the public, private, or hybrid level depending on research issues to be discussed are: How have developing
the context. Sustainable entrepreneurship involves think- countries integrated digital innovation into creative busi-
ing about the future whilst conducting current business ness pursuits? What is the role of entrepreneurship edu-
activities. This is important due to environmental degra- cation in developing more high-impact and value-adding
dation potentially causing damage for future generations. business ventures?
Thus, social, economic as well as financial considerations The role of education in emerging economies needs to
are included within this type of entrepreneurship. be investigated in more depth. This can include focusing on
the entrepreneurial ecosystems evident in these economies
and how they might differ or be the same to developed
3.19 Technology entrepreneurship economies. New research is needed on how changing soci-
etal norms regarding environmental entrepreneurship that
Technology entrepreneurship involves understanding how integrates social and sustainability goals occurs in develop-
internet and communications are used innovatively in ing countries. This can include more attention to be placed
a business context. Normally this involves focusing on on ethnic entrepreneurs that transcend their home and
emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and host country as a form of transnational entrepreneur. The
robots. Venture financing focuses on understanding how role of the diaspora and family in these business pursuits
crowdfunding and other innovative monetary ventures are could be considered.
86 RATTEN
TA B L E 2 Future research questions for different types of entrepreneurship.

Type of entrepreneurship Future research questions Methodological approaches
Artisan How is artisan entrepreneurship different Utilize a case study of different types of
to other types of entrepreneurship? artisan entrepreneurs to understand
their behavior.
Base of the pyramid What influences entrepreneurs to focus Analyze network data on connections
on the base of the pyramid? amongst base of the pyramid
entrepreneurs.
Corporate How can corporate entrepreneurs utilize Conduct in-depth interviews with
new innovation? corporate entrepreneurs.
COVID-19 What kind of new entrepreneurship has Utilize social media data to
derived from the COVID-19 pandemic? understanding entrepreneurial
marketing during the COVID-19
pandemic.
Craft How do craft entrepreneurs connect with Conduct videographic research on craft
their community? entrepreneurs.
Creative How has the internet influenced creative Utilize a mixed methods approach.
entrepreneurship?
Cultural What is the role of location in cultural Conduct quantitative surveys on cultural
entrepreneurship? entrepreneurs.
Developing countries What kinds of new entrepreneurship are Conduct case studies on entrepreneurs
occurring in developing countries? from developing countries
Digital How has digital entrepreneurship Do experiments on digital and non-digital
changed the business environment? entrepreneurs.
Education What kinds of new educational Utilize netnographic data on educational
entrepreneurship emerged from the innovations.
COVID-19 pandemic?
Emerging economies How are emerging economies developing Use an online survey to find out more
new kinds of business ventures? about emerging economy
entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurial ecosystem How are entrepreneurial ecosystems Conduct semi-structured interviews on
changing due to the COVID-19 stakeholders in an entrepreneurial
pandemic? ecosystem.
Environmental What kinds of environmental Utilize a 360 degree feedback system to
entrepreneurship is becoming popular? analyze the result.
Ethnic How have ethnic entrepreneurs Conduct in-depth interviews with ethnic
contributed to the food and beverage entrepreneurs.
industry?
Family What is the role of family in Analyze online communities to find out
entrepreneurship? involvement of family members.
Female How have female entrepreneurs Utilize real-time data feedback on female
contributed to society? entrepreneurs.
Fitness What kind of new fitness innovations Focus on analyzing online comments
emerged from the COVID-19 related to fitness-based new products.
pandemic?
Frugal How has frugal innovation grown in the Conduct observation analysis on frugal
COVID-19 pandemic? innovators.
Gender Does gender have an influence on type of Utilize field studies to observe gender
entrepreneurship? differences.
Governmental What kinds of governmental policies Conduct document analysis on
work best for entrepreneurs? government policies related to
entrepreneurship.
(Continues)
RATTEN 87
TA B L E 2 (Continued)
Type of entrepreneurship Future research questions Methodological approaches
Health What kinds of new health enterprises Conduct in-depth interviews with health
have developed in the post COVID-19 entrepreneurs.
environment?
Heritage How are heritage entrepreneurs utilizing Utilize community group focus groups to
community connections? understand heritage entrepreneurship.
Immigrant How has immigrant entrepreneurship Utilize document analysis on history of
changed because of reduced tourism immigrant entrepreneurs within a
levels during the COVID-19 pandemic? region.
International What is the role of de-internationalization Conduct an online survey during
entrepreneurship? different points of time.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, What kinds of niche markets are Conduct in-depth interviews of the
transexual, and queer LGBTQ+ people focusing on? LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs.
(LGBTQ+)
Minority What kinds of businesses were developed Analyze videos to understand minority
by minority entrepreneurs during the entrepreneurship behavior.
COVID-19 pandemic?
Music How can music entrepreneurs develop Analyze online content on social media
digital business ventures? about music entrepreneurs.
Poverty What kind of support is given to poverty Conduct a netnographic study on poverty
entrepreneurs? entrepreneurs.
Small business What kind of entrepreneurial policy Utilize document analysis on small
initiatives are tailored to small business performance.
business?
Social How has social entrepreneurship Analyze longitudinal data to find out the
changed in recent years? effects of social entrepreneurship.
Sport What is the role of digitalization in sport Analyze how sport clubs in local
entrepreneurship? communities are being
entrepreneurial.
Sustainable How can sustainable entrepreneurs Conduct network analysis of stakeholders
utilize the circular economy? in sustainable entrepreneurial
ecosystems.
Technological What is the role of space travel in Utilize an online survey to find out
technology entrepreneurship? perceptions about technology
entrepreneurs.
Venture financing How can venture finance entrepreneurs Conduct a field study on venture
utilize crowd funding? financing.
Whilst there has been a large increase in interest their culture. Additional research is required on immi-
on female entrepreneurship there are still new research grant entrepreneurship in terms of how entrepreneurs
avenues yet to be discovered. This includes linking female facilitate business ventures based on international collab-
entrepreneurship to other areas of entrepreneurship such orations and whether this changed during the COVID-19
as fitness and frugal to understand the linkages. Whilst pandemic. A topical research issue at the moment is
female entrepreneurship is considered part of gender what is the role of LGBTQ+ people on entrepreneur-
entrepreneurship, more research is required on what kinds ship due to changing societal norms and regulations.
of governmental policies work best based on gender. This Whilst there has been some research on this topic
would yield interesting findings related to how and why due to sensitivities around these issues more research
people due to their gender start entrepreneurial business is needed.
ventures. This is particularly important given the emphasis Research on minority entrepreneurship has blossomed
on health entrepreneurship during the COVID-19 pan- in recent years but more knowledge is needed on how
demic but also because of related heritage effects such specific forms of entrepreneurship such as music and
as the networks ties an entrepreneur has because of poverty are influenced by the status of entrepreneurs. This
88 RATTEN
could include examining how small business minority to understand why relationships occur and how they
entrepreneurs operate based on social conditions. An inter- are important to each partner. This means focusing
esting research track could be focusing on minority sport on the power differences between each partner in a
or sustainability entrepreneurs to understand why certain relationship.
types of entrepreneurs might be interested in specific busi- Theory validation involves testing theories to make sure
ness industries. This would help in contributing to the they work in practice. In changing social times as evi-
existing literature on technological and venture financing dent with the COVID-19 pandemic theories need to be
regarding entrepreneurship. However, due to large variety tested to see if they remain relevant. By validating a the-
in type of entrepreneurship there is still much research ory, it can help in predicting future results. This can enable
needed on these topics that will continue to evolve as researchers to include new variables and to extrapolate
society changes. This means entrepreneurship as a gen- existing findings.
eral field of business management offers many new and Theory extension involves refining a theory, so it bet-
existing opportunities. ter represents the phenomenon it is studying. This can
include adding new thinking about entrepreneurship in
terms of how it is defined and measured. By refining a
5 NEW THEORETICAL
theory then additional research can be conducted to test
DEVELOPMENTS
it. Thereby allowing observed outcomes to be better ana-
lyzed. In entrepreneurship research theory extension often
Handfield and Melnyk (1998) suggest that theory build-
occurs by adding a new context or variable. Sometimes
ing activities can be classified as discovery, description
this means adding a new field of study such as social
mapping, relationship building, theory validation, and the-
or non-profit initiatives in the case of theories regarding
ory extension/refinement. Discovery involves finding new
social entrepreneurship or sport and fitness with sport
areas for further theory development and this can include
entrepreneurship.
new topics for entrepreneurship researchers. As many
theories in entrepreneurship are interdisciplinary such
as the theory of sport-based entrepreneurship (Ratten,
6 CONCLUSION
2011) it is likely that new areas of technological develop-
ment or societal growth will be included. This is likely
This article has provided an overview of entrepreneurship
to occur with theories related to the COVID-19 pandemic
in terms of existing types and future research directions.
including crisis and resilience management. In addition,
As there are so many different types of entrepreneurship
geo-political change resulting from the COVID-19 pan-
it is useful to have this overview article that researchers,
demic but also the Ukraine/Russia crisis will likely result
policy makers, and students can read thereby providing a
in new entrepreneurship theories.
good way to highlight the main ways entrepreneurship is
Description involves exploring a field in terms of its
conceptualized in the literature. As discussed in this article
meaning. In entrepreneurship there is constantly a need
there are numerous types of entrepreneurship that differ
to know more about the process of new business creation
in the way they are conceptualized and used in practice
due to technology advances. Digital and mobile commerce
and in academia. This makes it important to recognize and
transformed business and this resulted in the new field of
acknowledge them in order to build a more holistic under-
digital entrepreneurship growing.
standing of what entrepreneurship is in society. Suggested
Mapping involves analyzing the key themes and rela-
future research avenues were stated that included poten-
tionships in a scientific area of study. It can be helpful
tial research questions and methodological approaches.
in terms of looking at research studies in a diagrammatic
This is helpful to those wanting to further improve our
or picture format. This can yield new insights that were
understanding of entrepreneurship.
previously unavailable. Researchers can map studies in
different ways depending on the main themes being iden-
tified. Mapping can be done in a manual way or through AU T H O R CO N T R I B U T I O N S
statistical programs. Thus, the approach taken varies based Vanessa Ratten: Conceptualization.
on the needs and ideas of the researchers.
Relationship building involves finding linkages between C O N F L I C T O F I N T E R E S T S TAT E M E N T
topics in the literature. This can occur through link- I have no conflict of interest.
ages that are evident in everyday activity or occur at
certain time periods. TO find linkages can be hard as D A T A AVA I L A B I L I T Y S T A T E M E N T
they differ depending on the context. It is important Research data are not shared.
RATTEN 89
ORCID Lounsbury, M., & Glynn, M. A. (2001). Cultural entrepreneurship:

Vanessa Ratten https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2534-4550 Stories, legitimacy, and the acquisition of resources. Strategic
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Mair, J., & Marti, I. (2004). Social entrepreneurship: What are we
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Ratten, V. (2022). Artisan Entrepreneurship: An Overview. In V.
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Entrepreneurship in the La Trobe Business School at
(Eds.) (2017). Gender and family entrepreneurship. Routledge.
La Trobe University (Australia). She teaches Corporate
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san entrepreneurship and the challenge of firm growth. Journal of Grow: The Role of Creativity and Entrepreneurship
Business Venturing, 35(5), 106044.
(Springer). She has also edited more than twenty
Stopford, J. M., & Baden-Fuller, C. W. (1994). Creating corporate
entrepreneurship. Strategic Management Journal, 15(7), 521–536.
books including Entrepreneurship and the Community:
Zhou, M. (2004). Revisiting ethnic entrepreneurship: Convergen- A Multidisciplinary Perspective on Creativity, Social
cies, controversies, and conceptual advancements. International Challenges, and Business (Springer).
Migration Review, 38(3), 1040–1074.

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DOI: 10.1002/joe.

Entrepreneurship: Definitions, opportunities, challenges,

Department of Management and

GBOE. 2023;42:79–90. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/joe 79

3.3 Creative entrepreneurship

TA B L E 1 Definitions of different types of entrepreneurship.

Education entrepreneurship involves analyzing business

interesting area of study as it includes study of religion, 3.12 Government entrepreneurship

Female entrepreneurship seeks to understand how 3.13 Health entrepreneurship

3.10 Fitness entrepreneurship

3.16 Minority entrepreneurship utilized by entrepreneurs. Recent technological innova-

TA B L E 2 Future research questions for different types of entrepreneurship.

ORCID Lounsbury, M., & Glynn, M. A. (2001). Cultural entrepreneurship:

Ratten, V. (2021). COVID-19 and entrepreneurship: Future research

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