Beyond Red Tape and Fools: Institutional Theory in Entrepreneurship Research, 1992–2014

Institutional theory has become an increasingly common lens in entrepreneurship research. Over the past years, the number of entrepreneurship studies that adopt institutional perspective (EIn research) has grown dramatically. This review systematically examines extant EIn research, analyzing 194 articles published in 11 leading journals from 1992 to 2014. In this review, we focus on three characteristics of the articles: institutional logic, level of analysis, and methodology. Further, we identify three distinct periods of EIn research: the conceptual phase, 1992–2000, the exploration phase 2001–2007, and the acceptance phase 2008–2014. This allows us to provide detailed discussion on main characteristics of the articles and identify evolutionary trends of this research area. The overall surge of articles with institutional perspective in entrepreneurship research is promising. We can see an increasing variation of methods being applied and a growing mutual interest between entrepreneurship and institutional theory researchers. Yet, we find substantial biases and omissions in the application of institutional theory. There is a focus on national level analysis with assuming state and market logics. For EIn to move forward it has to move closer to field/industry level analysis and add new insights into entrepreneurship and alternative logics. Based on our framework and additional insights gained from the review, we outline directions for future EIn research.