Philosophical Reflexivity and Entrepreneurship Research

2Applying philosophy to entrepreneurship and the social sciences

Russ McBride

Philosophy

There are ongoing efforts to apply philosophy to research in entrepreneurship theory, and not only entrepreneurship of course, but all the business sciences – strategy, organizational behavior, management, finance, etc. Some of these efforts have been successful, some unsuccessful, and others nonsensical. In what follows, I want to look at what it means to apply philosophy, some formalisms for how to do it (and not do it), and describe the best path forward for those interested in applying philosophy to questions in entrepreneurship and the social sciences in general.

Let’s start with the obvious question. What is philosophy? At dinner parties, one of my ...