ظهور کارافرینی مبتنی بر شواهد The Emergence of Evidence-Based Entrepreneurship

Evidence-based entrepreneurship (EBE) pursues the science-informed practice of entrepreneurship. A prerequisite is the systematic accumulation and interpretation of the body of evidence from entrepreneurship scholarship (Rauch & Frese, 2006). EBE builds on insights from the related practice of evidence-based management (EBMgt; Rousseau, 2012), itself influenced by evidence-based approaches in medicine, criminology, and other fields. At the same time, we must ask to what extent entrepreneurship can make use of the still controversial ideas of EBMgt. EBMgt combines four fundamental practices in making everyday managerial judgments and decisions: (1) use of the best available relevant scientific findings; (2) systematic attention to organizational facts, indicators, and metrics; (3) ongoing practice of critical, reflective judgment, and use of decision aids in order to improve decision quality; (4) consideration of ethical issues, in particular, the impact of decisions on their many stakeholders (Rousseau, 2012, pp. 4, 5). This special issue takes stock of the current state of EBE as well as the opportunities and limits of modeling it after evidence-based practice in other fields. Importantly, differences between entrepreneurship and other fields are noteworthy. EBE faces challenges that are not equally present in the fields of management or medicine. First is the typical requirement in evidence-based practice to establish standards based on the best available evidence. For example, evidence-based medicine may lead to the recommendations that reduce variability in practice, such that doctors deliver a particular treatment for a certain diagnosis in a well-specified fashion. Entrepreneurship, on the other hand, deals with generating novelty and being different from other participants in the market. So the actual behavior entrepreneurs demonstrate may need to differ from other entrepreneurs, managers, and people in general in order to be truly entrepreneurial (Sarasvathy, Simon, & Lave, 1998). This may imply that entrepreneurs deviate from what is typically thought to be good management practice. Entrepreneurs are often opportunistic. They base decisions not on careful deliberations of pro and con, but on fast heuristics (Busenitz & Alvarez, 2007) and rely on improvisation (Baker & Nelson, 2005). Thus, it is plausible that evidence-based recommendations concerning entrepreneurship may be appropriately made only at higher levels of abstraction than found in other evidence-based fields. For example, entrepreneurs may be well advised to improvise in facing novel circumstances while physicians and managers may be guided by recommendations to run a series of experiments to see which best approximates the desired outcome (Rousseau, 2012; Sarasvathy, 2001). Second, dissemination of knowledge poses a particular challenge in entrepreneurship. The number of entrepreneurs, however defined, is large and constitutes a very heterogeneous group of people. There are no credentialing systems for entrepreneurs, and no required programs or professional schools for them to enroll in before starting their businesses. In effect, passing information on to practicing and prospective entrepreneurs is difficult. Nonetheless, most advanced economies have extensive entrepreneurship policies that can be influenced by evidence-based insights and recommendations which then have effects on entrepreneurs. Similarly, venture capitalists and banks can be reached by evidence-based approaches which in turn will influence how entrepreneurs behave. Public policy institutions play an important role in the further development of EBE. Most nations have programs that provide support to entrepreneurs, new ventures, and small businesses. By designing such programs to allow appropriate evaluation of their outcomes (cf. Storey, 2002), these institutions can contribute to the establishment of EBE. We note that many programs would lend themselves to be designed as randomized controlled experiment; in particular those that involve awarding grants and/or providing training and guidance. This would be ideal for establishing not only the effectiveness of government programs, but more importantly also what constitutes effective entrepreneurship and management of entrepreneurial firms more broadly.