Entrepreneurial Learning: Past Research and Future Challenges

Catherine L. Wang, Harveen Chugh

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

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Abstract

Entrepreneurial learning (EL) has emerged as an important concept at the interface of entrepreneurship and organisational learning. Although EL research has gained momentum in the past decade, the literature is diverse, highly individualistic and fragmented, hindering the development of EL as a promising research area. In this article, we first conduct a systematic analysis of the EL literature in order to take stock of the theoretical and empirical development and identify research themes and developmental patterns of EL research. Second, we discuss three pairs of key learning types that deserve more attention in future research, namely individual and collective learning, exploratory and exploitative learning, and intuitive and sensing learning. These learning types correspond to three key challenges that are derived from the EL research gaps identified in our systematic literature analysis, and provide fruitful avenues for future research. Third, by exploring the three pairs of learning types, we draw further insights from entrepreneurship and organisational learning to help to advance EL research, and also feed back to the entrepreneurship literature by discussing how these learning types can help to understand the challenges at the centre of debate in the entrepreneurship literature.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)24-61
Number of pages38
JournalInternational Journal of Management Reviews
Volume16
Issue number1
Early online date31 Jan 2013
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2014

Keywords

  • entrepreneurial learning
  • systematic literature review
  • entrepreneurship

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