This PhD dissertation is based on four published articles. It operates within the
processual view of entrepreneurship studies (Steyaert, 1997), which draws on process
philosophy to develop research strategies (Sørensen, 2005). The research has been
guided by two strategies for understanding entrepreneurship: ‘moving’ (e.g. Steyaert
and Hjorth, 2003) and ‘unveiling’ (e.g. Jones and Spicer, 2009). These strategies have
so far been pursued largely in the conceptual domain, and this doctoral dissertation is
an effort to take them a step further by combining empirical investigation and
philosophical reflection. The aim is to investigate how a processual study of
entrepreneurship ‘should be worked out’ in practice (Kristensen, Lopdrup-Hjorth and
Sørensen, 2014).
The first two studies contribute an empirically informed conceptualisation of
entrepreneurship, the first focused on how organisations are created, the second
providing stories of emerging practices of female entrepreneurs. Though they aim to
provide alternative conceptualisations, they remain firmly rooted in ‘traditional’ social
science, offering alternative approaches to the dominant understandings of
entrepreneurship, and utilizing accepted and traditional methodologies and theories.
The last two papers are more experimental in their design. The aim is still to
problematize discursive or practical aspects of entrepreneurship and processes around
entrepreneurship, but also to investigate alternative methods for creating knowledge.
The third study explores the somewhat paradoxical results of SME support schemes
and develops a role-play-enhanced focus group technique. The fourth study is based on
an organisational ethnography in antiquarian bookshops and experiments with fictional
accounts and literary techniques as methods to generate knowledge.
The contribution of this dissertation to processual studies in entrepreneurship research
is twofold. The first two papers are illustrations of an application of process concepts,
while the last two papers illustrate the attempt to create process concepts. Taken
together, the studies demonstrate how a processual study of entrepreneurship might be
worked out in practice