Entrepreneurial Learning and Critical Reflection 449 at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on March 3, 2016mlq.sagepub.comDownloaded from

Abstract The importance of ‘learning events ’ has become an emergent theme within theorizing on how entrepreneurs learn. This article builds a deeper understanding of the learning outcomes triggered by significant, discontinuous events during the entrepreneur-ial process. It suggests that the domain of entrepreneurship represents a special and unique context in which to study management learning. It is argued that there is more to learning from discontinuous events than the incremental accumulation of more routinized, habitual, ‘lower-level ’ learning. This article illustrates that these events have the capacity to stimulate distinctive forms of ‘higher-level ’ learning—learning that is fundamental to the entrepreneur in both personal and business terms. It goes on to explore the concept of critical reflection and suggests that these learning outcomes are the result of what can be described most precisely as ‘inward ’ critical self-reflection. Key Words: critical self-reflection; discontinuous events; entrepreneurial learning; higher-level learning The Nature and Process of Entrepreneurial Learning The aim of this article is to develop a deeper understanding of the learning experienced by entrepreneurs during the management of a small enterprise. Such a focus represents part of a wider, emerging study of the learning outcomes of entrepreneurial activity within numerous contexts, such as corporate entrepreneur-ship, for example (see Gibb, 2000). Concurrently, a body of theory is emerging regarding organizational learning in smaller firms (Anderson and Skinner, 1999; Penn et al., 1998; Sadler-Smith et al., 1999). The study of how entrepreneurs negotiate the successful growth of a small business represents an unusual and special domain for the study of management learning. Of particular interest is the recognition that during the early stages of business growth the entrepreneur and the business are inextricably linked and ‘the owner is still synonymous with the business ’ (Churchill and Lewis, 1983: 34). Ove