Grand Opportunities
Research Paper Title:
“Advancing societal grand challenge research at the interface of entrepreneurship and international business: A review and research agenda”
Authors:
Background:
Societal grand challenges are increasingly attracting the attention of both entrepreneurship and international business scholars. While entrepreneurship focuses on the opportunities that emerge and the need for bold and innovative solutions, international business research emphasizes the global reach of the challenges and role of multinational enterprises. Although both conversations are insightful, it is argued that examining one without the other gives an incomplete picture of how to address grand challenges. Thus, the following research questions are asked: (1) How have entrepreneurship and international business scholars approached grand challenges? (2) How might entrepreneurship and international business research be integrated to create new insights into grand challenges?
Highlights:
The authors systematically review the literature on grand challenges from both the entrepreneurship and international business fields.
The authors develop an integrative summary to assess the antecedents, phenomenon and consequence in both fields and what gaps exist.
The authors posit that an international entrepreneurship lens is vital to take the stock forward in future research.
The authors propose three key research themes for accelerating grand challenge research.
Methodology:
Sample Description: peer-reviewed articles published between 2000 and 2020 in 27 leading entrepreneurship and international business journals that touch upon societal grand challenges.
Sample Size: 115 articles
Analytical Approach: Systematic review of articles in the entrepreneurship and international business literature that touched upon societal grand challenges
Hypothesis:
No hypotheses or propositions as this is a literature review.
Results:
Societal grand challenges are defined as "complex, wicked problems impacting a vast number of people globally and which call for innovative solutions that transcend institutional and geographical boundaries."
The systematic review uncovered 115 articles on societal grand challenges from 19 journal outlets, of which 53 were related to entrepreneurship and 57 were related to international business. Only five articles overlapped both domains to some extent.
An integrative summary that considers the existing theoretical contributions from both the entrepreneurship and international business perspectives was developed. Grand challenges can be positioned as "grand opportunities." Consideration is made for the motivation for firms to pursue grand challenges, how grand challenges are undertaken, and the subsequent impact.
To further explore how organizational action impacts grand challenges and if, or how, this impact can be accelerated, the use of an international entrepreneurship lens is needed.
Three future research conversations for leveraging an international entrepreneurial lens are outlined: (1) the global scaling of entrepreneurial solutions to grand challenges, (2) the development of entrepreneurial solutions to grand challenges by multinational enterprises, and (3) the global ecosystems surrounding grand challenges.
Conclusion:
Scholars need to be intentional about creating and disseminating scholarly insight on grand challenges. This requires interdisciplinary collaboration.