Schumpeter’s (1934) influence on entrepreneurship (and management) research

Entrepreneurship research has flourished since de 1980s, following the institutional development that created schools and courses, research centers and dedicated journals. This paper examines the impact of Joseph Schumpeter, one of the main “knowledge producers” whose concepts and ideas on the entrepreneur, entrepreneurship and innovation have shaped the discipline and much of the research on entrepreneurship, and has influenced the thought on other areas of management. Methodologically, we conducted a bibliometric study of the articles published in 16 high stature international journals, over a period of 30 years, between 1981 and 2010. On a sample of 412 articles citing Schumpeter, we analyzed and mapped citations, co-citations and research themes. We further establish distinctions between entrepreneurship and management research. This study presents a manner to examine the influence of a scholar, and a set of conceptualizations he has introduced, on a discipline. Schumpeter has had an imprint in the multidisciplinary and wealth of research themes that entrepreneurship scholars have delved upon but also in other management disciplines, where his perspectives on entrepreneurship, the entrepreneur and innovation have contributed to much of the research conducted to date. Although entrepreneurship has remained largely multidisciplinary and drawing from the main management theories there is a growing body of entrepreneurship-specific literature.