Looking Back, Moving Forward: A Systematic Review of Entrepreneurship Studies in Communication Research

Abstract

Despite scholarly consensus that communication is significant to entrepreneurial organizing, communication research in entrepreneurship is nascent. To advance theory and empirical research, this article presents a systematic review of entrepreneurship studies published in communication journals. Through a comprehensive keyword and literature search, we identified 49 relevant articles published in the past 30 years. Content and computational analyses suggest scholars have studied entrepreneurship in a variety of communication domains and sub-fields, including news and journalism, new media technologies, and social networks. Furthermore, most research has focused on conventional entrepreneurship and the processes supporting it rather than entrepreneurship’s antecedents and/or outcomes. Based on our review, we highlight six areas for future research in the intersection of communication and entrepreneurship: (1) entrepreneurial identity, (2) innovation, (3) social networks, (4) digital technologies, (5) institutions, and (6) entrepreneurship by historically underrepresented and minoritized groups.