“Scholars don’t know about entrepreneurship; entrepreneurs do”

Description

Funded by the Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship. 

Background

Entrepreneurs do not often engage with, or use, entrepreneurship scholarship. This is despite research finding that engaged entrepreneurship scholarship can result in potential improvements for the entrepreneur and their business. This implies there are gaps between the (scholarship) activities undertaken by entrepreneurship academics and the relevance of that research for non-academic communities.

Notwithstanding the growth in awareness of, and dialogue on, the relevance of entrepreneurship scholarship beyond the academy, a pressing knowledge gap persists - what negative perspectives and perceptions exist of entrepreneurship scholars and scholarship that inform non-engagement?

Indeed without considering this aspect, understanding and knowledge of the concepts of relevance and impact, their measurement and meaning remains limited. Thus, investigation of the resistance – is it ideological or practical? – to engaging across the academic boundary, requires exploration.

We intend to unpack controversial dialogue such as “scholars don’t know about entrepreneurship” to better understand and close the gap between what scholars’ research and what practice deems relevant and valuable.

Publications and outputs

• “Do entrepreneurs value entrepreneurship research?”, Leeds University Business School – Research & Innovation Blog, February 2020