Mapping Two Decades of World Research in Entrepreneurship: A Scientometric Analysis

The purpose of this study is to investigate the knowledge structure in Entrepreneurship research using co-word analysis, to identify top authors in the field by number of articles, number of citations, and h-index, and to visualize the international collaboration network in it. Social network analysis, citation analysis, and co-occurrence analysis are used in conducting this research. The research population consists of articles published in the field of entrepreneurship that have been indexed in Web of Science in the last 20 years (1997-2016) Results indicated that Iran’s international research on entrepreneurship has grown steadily during the last decades. Co-word analysis showed that “Entrepreneurship”, “SMEs”, and “Innovation” are the most frequent keywords in this research area. Moreover, “Entrepreneurship-Innovation”, “Entrepreneurship-self employment”, and “Entrepreneurship-economic development” are top co-words in this field. Results of cluster analysis led to the creation of 7 topical clusters in entrepreneurship research. Furthermore, data analysis uncovered that “Wright M” is the most prolific, “Shane S” is the most cited, and again “Wright M” has the highest h-index among all entrepreneurship researchers. Also, based on co-authorship indicators, “Wright M” owns the best position in the network. According to the results of this research, it seems that since 1990s, the emergence and development of World Wide Web has had a positive impact of the growth of research in entrepreneurship. On the other hand, thematic clusters can give a macro view of topics in entrepreneurship. Finally, based on integrative indicators, it can be stated that “Wright M” is the most influential researcher in entrepreneurship during past 20 years.