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

• Factors influencing venture creation and development
• Government po licies and venture creation
• Women, minorities, ethnic groups and entrepreneurship
• Entrepreneurship education
• Entrepreneurship research
• Comparative cultural studies
• Entrepreneurship and society
• Franchises [Filion, 1997]
These 25 themes do present a ‘catch-all’ of common subjects of entrepreneurship research.
However such lists are limited in that there is no perception of gravitas in either: the
subject, sourcing episteme, significant journals, influencing disciplines and the like.
Differentiation is weak, grids of specification are not identified and while the list is
inclusive it does little more than present a list. No distinctive domain is obvious nor is
there identification of more important areas or how these subjects of research have
changed o ver time.
2.5.4.12 The abo ve mentioned discussion in this section foc uses on ont ologies. I feel it
is significant to look at what knowledge is already accepted into the episteme and see how
the ontology has de velope d. The exercise is not to pa ss judgment on why knowledge has
been accepted, (i.e. epistemic justification) as this has been commented on already by Dery
and Toulouse [1996], but to look at the development of the discipline and how the
ontologies have been constructed.
2.5.5 Refining the issue of the investigation
2.5.5.00 Prior to the subs equent Part Three on methodo logy, I want to clarify why I am
using ontology instead of epistemology as the basis of my investigation into the discipline
of entrepreneurship.
2.5.5.01 In the mode l I have de velop ed, the discipline of entrepreneurship exists within
the realms of the discourse on entrepreneurship. It is possible in the space of a single
conversation for academics within the discipline to move from the discipline, where what
103