The Distinctiveness of the European Tradition in Entrepreneurship Research

The papers presented in this special issue follow on from ideas and discussions had at a workshop organized by the Centre for Knowledge, Innovation, Technology and Enterprise (KITE), at Newcastle University, and the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship, Strathclyde University, held at Newcastle University Business School in June 2010. Its purpose was to bring together like-minded scholars and to celebrate and solidify a certain approach to studying enterprise. I have herding propensities and felt that this collective identity needed further definition. We should create a ‘European’ School of entrepreneurship, I thought. Academics resist being herded, and institutional definition ultimately gave way, after some discussion, to a focus on, to quote from the post-workshop call for papers, ‘the distinctiveness of the European tradition in entrepreneurship research’. The revised call for papers (Down and Cope 2010) went on to explain, This follows what we felt was a majority view that the notion of a “School” was too strong a formulation, and that what is common and distinctive is a commitment to a European tradition of research and theorising – one which adopts a broader social-science (and humanities) perspective and is critical, reflexive and attentive to history than a great deal of mainstream entrepreneurship scholarship. ‘European’ in this context of course alludes to some geographical differences, but more importantly it reflects a commitment to these intellectual orientations. This then is what we are about with this issue of Entrepreneurship and Regional Development