Abstract/Summary

Entrepreneurship studies needs to re-engage with classic disciplines such as economics, history, statistics, geography and sociology. Fifty years ago there was a widely agreed methodology for social science research based on techniques developed by these disciplines. They analysed the evolution of complex social and economic systems in terms of rationality, efficiency, competition, co-operation, equilibrium and stability. Today their insights are misunderstood and increasingly ignored. Entrepreneurship studies needs to go back in order to go forward: it must re-engage with traditional techniques in order for research to progress in future.