The Handbook of Entrepreneurship Research: Disciplinary Perspectives strives to increase awareness and stimulate research in numerous important topics in the field, particularly those underdeveloped areas of study with more relevance to scholarship and theory than to the practice of entrepreneurship. For example, less research has focused on the importance of the macroeconomic environment to firm founding, on social and kinship ties as sources of entrepreneurial activity, and the interaction between institutions and entrepreneurship. We do so by drawing attention to the relevant research in the disciplines of economics and sociology. This volume of the Handbook hopes to begin to bridge the gap between the research in entrepreneurship and the core disciplines by introducing views of entrepreneurship from disciplinary perspectives. As such, this volume of the Handbook is intended to complement and build on the first volume by focusing on a select set of issues and examining them in an in-depth manner.
Author Biography:
Sharon A. Alvarez Dr. Sharon Alvarez is an assistant professor of entrepreneurship in the Department of Management and Human Resources at The Ohio State University. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Colorado. Professor Alvarez's current research interests include entrepreneurship and modern theories of the firm and technology alliances between entrepreneurial firms and larger established firms. She has published articles in Academy of Management Executive, Journal of Management, and Journal of Business Venturing and regularly presents her work at national conferences such as Academy of Management, Babson, and Strategic Management Conference. Dr. Alvarez currently holds editorial positions at Journal of Small Business Economics, Entrepreneurship, Theory & Practice, and Journal of Business Venturing. Rajshree Agarwal Rajshree Agarwal is assistant professor of strategic management in the College of Business at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She received her Ph.D in Economics from SUNY-Buffalo. Professor Agarwal has worked in the area of evolutionary economics. Her papers have examined the diffusion of new product innovations and the impact of the industry life cycle on firm performance. Her current research interests focus on issues relating to dynamic capability acquisition, and how processes of knowledge transfer impact both industry evolution and firm performance. She has published articles in the Academy of Management Journal, Management Science, Journal of Law and Economics, Journal of Industrial Economics, and the Review of Economics and Statistics, among others. Professor Agarwal is an active member in both the American Economic Association and the Academy of Management, and regularly presents her work at several national and international conferences. Olav Sorenson Olav Sorenson is associate professor of policy at the University of California, Los Angeles. He received his Ph.D. from the Sociology Department at Stanford University. Professor Sorenson's research focuses on two topics: the role of social networks in entrepreneurship and economic geography, and the relationship between organizational design and organizational learning. His research appears in several leading journals, such as the American Journal of Sociology, Management Science, the Strategic Management Journal, Research Policy, Industrial and Corporate Change, and the Sloan Management Review. Dr. Sorenson also currently holds, or has held, editorial positions at the American Journal of Sociology, Administrative Science Quarterly, the Academy of Management Review, Small Business Economics, Research Policy and Strategic Organization.
