The intellectual structure of entrepreneurship: an author co-citation analysis

This paper explores the intellectual structure of an emerging discipline in the social sciences, the field of entrepreneurship. Author Co-citation Analysis provides a method enabling a macro-view of this field, as perceived by its most research active members, to be established. The co-citation frequencies of 78 entrepreneurship authors were analysed using multivariate techniques. Cluster Analysis and Multidimensional Scaling were used to explore the intellectual structure of entrepreneurship. Factor Analysis was then used to investigate the range of the authors' research specialties. The technique has facilitated an inquiry into the composition of entrepreneurship and has successfully identified those authors that have shaped the development of the field through their research specialties. The study has demonstrated the apparent evolution of national differences in the topics studied within entrepreneurship.