Review of network research in scientific journal ‘Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice’

Abstract

This article aims at presenting a systematic review of publications that verified the network theory and the theory of networks empirically, published in the entrepreneurship journal with the highest Impact Factor: “Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice”. We present how publication frequency evolved over time, and classify papers into major streams of entrepreneurship research. Our findings suggest the theory of networks is an under-researched area promising for further advancing the theory of entrepreneurship. We also find increasing publication frequency of network related research over time. Results oriented research were most often present in reviewed articles, while relationship among network variables and innovation was only tested in two articles so far which suggests that more research is needed in this direction in the future. We belief that verification of theories of networks in entrepreneurship and verification of relationship between network variables and innovation within the network theory are most promising. The originality of this work lies in identification of research opportunities and dynamics of empirical verification of network studies in the field of entrepreneurship.

Keywords

• network theory
• theory of networks
• literature review
• entrepreneurship
• network society