Entrepreneurship research in three regions-the USA, Europe and China

During the last few decades the field of entrepreneurship has received increased scholarly attention all over the world. Nevertheless, against this internationalization background, little is known about how entrepreneurship research developed in different regions. In this study, we illustrate the development of entrepreneurship field not only in the USA and Europe but also in China. The study is based on co-citation analysis of entrepreneurship-related articles in the SSCI and Chinese Social Science Citation Index (CSSCI) databases. It appears that the development of entrepreneurship as a research field in China has followed a different path compared to the USA and Europe, where “contextual force” was the main driver in the early stage, but during the development process the external influence became weaker and that of “internal force” becomes stronger. In China, the main driver of entrepreneurship research is “internal force” while the “contextual force” has been downplayed. Similarities and differences in the development process across regions have also been identified.