Critical Perspectives on Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship is largely considered to be a positive force, driving venture creation and economic growth. Critical Perspectives on Entrepreneurship questions the accepted norms and dominant assumptions of scholarship on the matter, and reveals how they can actually obscure important questions of identity, ideology and inequality. The book’s distinguished authors and editors explore how entrepreneurship study can privilege certain forms of economic action, whilst labelling other, more collective forms of organization and exchange as problematic. Demystifying the archetypal vision of the white, male entrepreneur, this book gives voice to other entrepreneurial subjectivities and engages with the tensions, paradoxes and ambiguities at the heart of the topic. This challenging collection seeks to further the momentum for alternate analyses of the field, and to promote the growing voice of critical entrepreneurship studies. It is a useful tool for researchers, advanced students and policy-makers.

This is an excellent book. Critical studies are gaining ground in the entrepreneurship field; and this edited volume provides a much needed overview that challenges our thinking on what constitutes entrepreneurship and why. The chapters highlight the value of critically reviewing well-known phenomena such as minority, ethnic, indigenous entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, gender and entrepreneurship. The editors have done a superb job in assembling such knowledgeable contributors. A must read for all of us interested in the contribution critical perspectives can make to entrepreneurship research. Friederike Welter, Institut für Mittelstandsforschung Bonn, and University of Siegen, Germany.The coming of Essers, Dey, Tedmanson and Verduyn’s excellent collection is in itself a manifesto for the strength of critical entrepreneurship studies. As contributions to this field, each and every chapter voices entrepreneurship as a social change activity capable of speaking back, explicitly or implicitly, to what the 'entrepreneur' of neoliberalism attempts to conceal. At the same time, each chapter articulates a whole other world of possibilities. A 'must read' to act upon!Marta B. Calás, Professor of Organization Studies and International Management, University of Massachusetts, USAAdopting a proactive stance for highlighting new critiques and contexts of entrepreneurship, this thought-provoking collection of critical narratives discusses entrepreneurship as a social change activity. With an interest in non-traditional entrepreneurial activities, this authoritative volume advances critical scholarship and fosters a new agenda for entrepreneurship research in the coming decade.Denise Fletcher, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg

Caroline Essers is Associate Professor of Strategic Human Resource Management at Radboud University, the Netherlands. Pascal Dey is Senior Lecturer at the Institute for Business Ethics, University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. Deirdre Tedmanson is Associate Professor and Associate Head of School (Academic) in the School of Psychology, Social Work and Social Policy at the University of South Australia. Karen Verduyn is Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands and Programme Director of their MSc in Entrepreneurship.