Who is a ‘non-entrepreneur’?: Taking the ‘others’ of entrepreneurship seriously

Abstract

In response to the absence of entrepreneurial action on behalf of non-actors, micro-oriented scholars typically tend to refuse to allocate entrepreneurial capacities to the ‘others’ of entrepreneurship. However, in contesting this explanatory practice, macro-oriented scholars counter that ‘others’ do not lack power but opportunity. This article suggests how recurrent dualisms may be fruitfully surpassed within a conceptual framework that accommodates the ontological intuitions of both theorizing tendencies. Guarding against the temptation to deny the existence of either unexercised powers or unexploited opportunities not only allows us to resist the seduction of dualisms, but also allows for the emergence of an expanded worldview that enables a more dynamic conceptualization of the entrepreneurship phenomenon. The analysis closes by recommending directions for meta-theoretical research aiming at the identification of factors that may be hindering entrepreneurship scholarship from cognizance of realist (and realistic) insights.

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