THE SOCIOLOGY OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP Academic Article

abstract

• Abstract Recent research on entrepreneurship by sociologists has focused on subsectors of the discipline rather than on entrepreneurship as a class. This review draws insights from diverse literatures to develop a sociological perspective on entrepreneurship as a whole. Until recently, the supply-side perspective, which focuses on the individual traits of entrepreneurs, has been the dominant school of research. Newer work from the demand-side perspective has focused on rates, or the context in which entrepreneurship occurs. This review emphasizes this less developed demand-side perspectivein particular, the influence of firms and markets on how, where, and why new enterprises are founded. I take stock of the differences and separation in the two perspectives and argue that sociological frameworks, an embeddedness perspective, institutional and ecological theory, and multilevel models can be used to integrate the two schools and extend their research implications.

authors

• Thornton, Patricia

published proceedings

• Annual Review of Sociology

altmetric score

• 5

author list (cited authors)

• Thornton, P. H.

citation count

• 557

publication date

• January 1999

publisher

• Annual Reviews  Publisher

published in

• Annual Review of Sociology  Journal

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

• 10.1146/annurev.soc.25.1.19

start page

• 19

end page

• 46

volume

• 25

issue

• 1

URL

• http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.25.1.19