Reinventing entrepreneurship research: the contribution of action research as a methodological approach

Abstract

This article examines the relevance of action research as a methodology for studying complex, dynamic and contextualized entrepreneurial phenomena. The available methodological literature nevertheless remains fragmented: it documents the epistemological foundations of this approach, its forms and its fields separately, without offering a framework linking the conditions that make action research possible, the mechanisms through which it produces knowledge, and the outcomes it generates. This is the gap we seek to address. Through a critical narrative review of eighty-three works published between 1946 and 2025, and drawing on cases from Living Labs, university spin-offs and incubation programs taken from already published research, we show that action research constitutes an adequate methodological response to the limitations of traditional positivist approaches in entrepreneurship. Our analysis reveals that this approach enables the co-construction of knowledge between researchers and practitioners, fosters organizational learning and generates knowledge rooted in specific contexts. We propose a conceptual framework articulating three blocks, contextual antecedents, co-construction mechanisms and outcomes, connected by a feedback loop, from which we derive five testable theoretical propositions, together with a future research agenda addressing artificial intelligence, social entrepreneurship and sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystems.

JEL Classification: B41, C18, L26, O35

Paper type: Theoretical Research