Contextualization of entrepreneurship research : methodologies of the trend

In the last decade, contextualization has matured into an important topic of entrepreneurship research and continues to attract great interest. However, from a methodological point of view, contextualization still seems to pose significant challenges. In order to reflect the current trends and challenges of methods used in entrepreneurship context research, we analyze articles published in leading scientific journals of the field against the background of context methodologies of Welter and Baker (who, where, when). We deductively coded our final sample (131 articles) regarding type of method, used Data, unit of analysis and context typologies of Welter and Baker. Our results show the following 4 most important findings: 1. Case studies in particular show methodological strengths with regard to the depth of contextual observation. 2. The contextualization show clear differences in the methods required and used regarding the different typologies. 3. Methodological processing of contextualization depends on aspects such as data availability, data type and generalizability. 4. Individuality and depth represent the greatest challenges for a qualitatively appropriate contextualization of entrepreneurship research.