ABSTRACT:
Ethnography is a well accepted approach to qualitative research in the social sciences in general and this chapter argues that it should also be seen by researchers in the specific field of entrepreneurship as a valuable tool with which to study the process of entrepreneurship from the viewpoint of the people involved. In addition to a role in exploratory research and hypothesis development, ethnographic methods can contribute to the development of grounded theory and provide rich narratives that can offer insights into entrepreneurial behaviour and how entrepreneurial ventures emerge and grow. This chapter introduces ethnography as a research strategy, the practical aspects of designing ethnographic research, the use of ethnographic methods of data collection and interpretation and discusses how ethnographic methods may contribute to the study of entrepreneurship.
