Mapping the aliran of the academic discipline of entrepreneurship: A ...

for each has also been dependent upon the existence of a structured discipline each
serving the other whereby the discipline status attracts teaching revenue and
research funds [p9].
While O’Connor, Cherry and Buckley [2006] go on to propose a postmodern frame of
reference with a ‘domain of engagement’ between practitioner and academic, the co-
dependent relationship between practitioner and academic remains, either in traditional
sense of discipline / practitioner or some less structured postmodern framework. What
researchers, such as O’Connor, Cherry and Buckley [2006], fail to ask is whether
disciplines and post modernity are necessarily exclusive. There seems to be nothing
apparent that assumes that postmodern paradigms of ontology and epistemology, along
with associated methodologies, are incompatible with the concept of a discipline. This
compatibility is a function of the episteme allowing relevant research into the discipline.
2.5.2.3.07 Is the emergent discipline of entrepreneurship showing signs that it is fulfilling
this function of representationality? As Swedberg [2000] notes, “The various attempts that
have been made to theoretically integrate entrepreneurship into mainstream economic
theory are of little practical interest to the entrepreneur-to-be” [cited in Bennett, 2008, p8].
“Pfeffer and Fong (2002) find that executives pay little attention to research by academics,
preferring instead to listen to consultants” [cited in McKelvey, 2004, p1].
2.5.2.3.08 As discussed in the sections on positionality, one of the most significant
lacks in the research is the approach to problem solving. Entrepreneurs face problems just
like every business or management person; however given the nature of entrepreneurship
that makes it distinctly separate to the non-entrepreneurial and/or management function, it
could well be expected that not only the problems faced by entrepreneurs, but also the
approaches taken by entrepreneurs to solving these problems, have a degree of uniqueness.
2.5.2.3.09 From a ‘supply side’ [Thornton, 1999] approach it could be said that
successful entrepreneurs have a better set of traits to solving problems, both normal
management problems and those unique to their specific entrepreneurial environment, than
do the less successful entrepreneurs. From a ‘demand side’ [Thornton, 1999] perspective
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