An emergence perspective on entrepreneurship: processes, structure and methodology

This paper explores entrepreneurship from the perspective of emergence, drawing on literature incomplexity theory, social theory and entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is conceptualised as theproduction of emergence, or emergent properties, via a simple model of initial conditions, processes ofemergence that produces emergent properties at multiple levels (new phenomena such as products,services, firms, networks, patterns of behaviour, identities). Conceptualisation through emergence thusembraces actors, context, processes and (structural) outcomes. This paper builds on previous work thattheorises the relationship between entrepreneurship and social change. We extend that work byconsidering the methodological implications of relating processes of entrepreneurship to the emergenceof new phenomena.