The History of Entrepreneurship Backward: An Exploratory Approach from Industrial Archaeology

Abstract

Purpose: To determine under which mechanisms arti-facts can be employed to build up a history embedded within an entrepreneurial project (its processes), shedding a novel, new in-depth, multidimensional analysis of entrepreneurship.Methodological design: An approach from Industrial Archeology (ia), consisting of two stages: the artifact is deconstructed in its material and usage context, and later into an organizational context, in conjunction with historical and qualitative techniques (triangulation and hermeneutic interpretation).Results: A conceptual proposal is made to analyze and understand the entrepreneurial processes.Research limitations: As any conceptual proposal is purposely simplified, which can be seen as a disadvan-tage. Findings: It is suggested to analyze the history of en-trepreneurship from ia, as the artifact can give specific and valuable information regarding the processes under which they were conceptualized, design, produced, sold, adapt, or get obsoleted, and the impact it had on the business.