Abstract :
A number of more contextual and process-oriented approaches have been followed recently
in entrepreneurial research, including the cognitive approach, the learning approach and
the evolutionary approach. This paper reviews the evolutionary approach to the study of
entrepreneurship. This includes an overview of evolutionary theory and the arguments
behind its relevance to the study of socio-economics systems, as well as a review of the
application of evolutionary theory to the study of entrepreneurship at both the population
level (population ecology) and the organizational level (strategic choice). The reconciliation
of these two perspectives is discussed, and comparisons are made with the cognition-based
and learning-based approaches. It is argued in this paper that an evolutionary approach to
the study of entrepreneurship leads to more theory-driven research with a strong focus on
process and context. In addition, it offers more than both the cognition-based and learningbased
approaches because it allows for multi-level analyses of the new venture creation
process, encompassing both the population ecology (population level) and strategic choice
(organizational level) perspective, and the resultant interactions between both hierarchies,
giving valuable insight into the same overall evolutionary process.
