Dear all,
We are happy to invite you to submit your best work to the upcoming Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice Special Issue:
Time in Entrepreneurship: New Perspectives and Approaches
Submission Deadline: September 30th, 2027
Background
This SI seeks manuscripts advancing our understanding of time in entrepreneurship. Research on the duration, pace, timing, and speed of action calibration in entrepreneurial processes such as opportunity realization are key examples of the role temporal dynamics play in entrepreneurship. Time is equally critical when examining decisions about the timing of growth while managing external events and shocks alongside slowly or rapidly evolving industry trends and customer preferences. Further lines of inquiry concern the pace, timing, and speed of exit decisions, or decisions to pursue venturing activities over time. Entrepreneurs' subjective perceptions of time, and their own and their stakeholders' orientations towards the short- vs. long-term, the past, present or future shape how they navigate entrepreneurship. Regardless of where our scholarly curiosity lies relative to the importance of time in entrepreneurship, nearly three decades have passed since the first (and only) ETP special issue on time in entrepreneurship (Bird & West, 1997). Yet, scholars continually advocate that we should pay more attention to time in entrepreneurship (e.g., Levasseur et al., 2024; Lévesque & Stephan, 2020; Wood et al., 2021) and there is a growing body of work on time in management (Bansal et al., 2025), in strategy (Bansal et al., 2022), and in organizational behavior (Levasseur et al., 2020). This suggests a need for entrepreneurship scholarship to learn from how time is discussed in other disciplines and to engage more deeply with the study of the specifics of time and temporality in entrepreneurship, accounting for unique temporal challenges entrepreneurs must navigate in their daily activities. Despite the pervasive influence of time itself as a target for action across academia and industry, we lack a dedicated conversation on time as the main focus for theory development, extension, and testing in entrepreneurship. This SI provides a forum to advance this critical conversation.
Aims and Scope
More than simply the passing of time as a background condition (Wood et al., 2021), time itself is a multilevel phenomenon across levels of analyses from the individual entrepreneur and teams to entrepreneurial firms and societies (Lévesque & Stephan, 2020). We are especially interested in work that addresses the subjective elements of time-how time is experienced, shaped, and communicated-and how the subjective elements might flow from objective temporal artifacts (clock time, schedules, deadlines, etc.). We know little about how entrepreneurs engage in temporal manipulation and time as sense-making and sense-giving such that subjective experience of time diverges from objective time to, for instance, create a sense of fleeting investment opportunity. These subjective aspects of time are critical, raising questions about, for instance, the effects of interpretations or manipulations of time on outcomes like entrepreneurial orientation, preparedness in pitch presentation, and investor decisions to provide funding. Further, we have a limited understanding of how temporal dimensions-duration, pace, timing, speed, and related windows of opportunity-impact the creation, running, and managing of new ventures (e.g., Bakker & Shepherd, 2017; Wood et al., 2021). We lack a clear comprehension of how these dimensions may shape not only venture outcomes but also the psychology of entrepreneurs including their motivations, efforts, sense of progress, well-being, physical and mental health, and how they relate to stakeholders. In that regard, we call for research to examine how temporal dimensions impact entrepreneurs, their stakeholders, and ventures.
Importantly, we seek research that is more than simply processual, longitudinal, and historical (e.g., Langley, 1999; Ployhart & Vandenberg, 2010; Suddaby & Foster, 2017). While we are open to these approaches, the phenomena of time should be central/core rather than peripherical. Simply looking at how a phenomenon unfolds over time is insufficient for inclusion in the SI. We look for studies that focus on theorizing and investigating the role of time. These studies might address, for instance, how entrepreneurs temporally oriented practices and actions impact entrepreneurial processes and outcomes. Looking at these practices and actions over time illuminates the role and influence of time, which strengthens entrepreneurship as the focal context as entrepreneurs and new venture navigate unique temporal challenges (liability of newness, absence of legitimacy, uncertainty, etc.). In this regard, simulation studies have promise, allowing investigations of the influence of engagement with time itself as driver of thinking, action, and outcomes, over longer periods than empirical work can typically sustain (e.g., Keyhani & Lévesque, 2016; Keyhani et al., 2015).
Providing a deeper understanding of the role of subjective time could also be done in relation to entrepreneurs' actions, ventures, and their strategies, and how these relationships are shaped by macro-level contexts (e.g., industries), and how communities, regions, and countries are impacted by institutional, religious, and cultural contexts (e.g., Bruton et al., 2010; Fisher et al., 2024; Stephan, 2022; Stephan et al., 2025). Such research could bring new insights into how macro-level conditions, events, shocks, and crises, and other external enablers or disablers (Davidsson, 2015) impact how entrepreneurs and their ventures navigate time. Moreover, both objective and subjective time may help explain heterogeneity and inclusion in entrepreneurship (Garcia et al., 2025), decolonization, and sustainability and social impact outcomes of entrepreneurship (e.g., Shevchenko et al., 2016; Vedula et al., 2022).
We invite interested scholars to submit cutting-edge manuscripts that seek to advance our theoretical and empirical understanding and knowledge of the role and influence of time in entrepreneurship beyond what is already known, and across levels of analysis and contexts. Manuscripts may draw on knowledge from other fields and disciplines, and generate time-based theorizing that is unique to entrepreneurship. We value manuscripts that employ or triangulate different methodological approaches to analyze time in entrepreneurship such as controlled or natural experiments, simulations, formal modelling, machine learning approaches and diverse qualitative research approaches. We seek the next generation of rigorous and impactful (theoretical and empirical) research with the core focus on time, and we expect manuscripts to make significant novel (theoretical, empirical, and/or methodological) contributions to entrepreneurship literature. Consequently, the SI editorial team is excited to receive papers that deploy excellent (time-based) theorizing and empirical work clearly related to temporal dimensions/topics that are important in entrepreneurial settings.
Some possible topics (but not limited to)
Regarding the nature of time, how do objective dimensions such as duration, pace, timing, speed, and window of opportunity impact the entrepreneurship process? For instance, how do they shape links between entrepreneurs' subjective time perspective, their biological time (chronotype), and cognitive processes related to information scanning and learning?
How do entrepreneurs' subjective time perspectives relate to their cognitions including information scanning and search, entrepreneurial learning, information associations and connections, and opportunity evaluation and judgment?
How do time perspectives relate to informal investors' and venture capitalists' decision to provide funding? How do investors' time perspectives shape who they invest in, and the timing and size of their investments?
With what pace and speed do failure consequences vary with institutional and cultural contexts? How does the timing of these consequences vary across groups of entrepreneurs including minoritized groups and differently abled entrepreneurs? When and how does time perspective lead to unhealthy persistence in entrepreneurship and undermine well-being?
How do entrepreneurs' perception of time and the temporal development of the business impact venture emergence, business sustainability, and social entrepreneurship? Do we see variations in temporal profiles and differences across industries and cultures?
How do the pacing of external events and entrepreneurs' own time perspective relate to how they manage equity, diversity, decolonization, and inclusion within their ventures?
Special Issue Editors (in alphabetical order)
Ludvig Levasseur, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, ludvig.levasseur@iimb.ac.in
Moren Lévesque, York University, mlevesque@schulich.yorku.ca
Paul Spee, University of Queensland, p.spee@business.uq.edu
Ute Stephan, King's College London, ute.stephan@kcl.ac.uk
Matthew Wood, University of Oklahoma, ms_wood@ou.edu
Submission Process and Deadline
· All guest editors are available for any informal enquiries related to the SI (e.g., feedback on potential fit with the SI aims and scope).
· Submissions should be prepared according to ETP Manuscript Preparations Guidelines, will undergo ETP double-blind review process, and should be submitted through the ETP online submission system (https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/etp) by September 30th, 2027. Early submissions will be processed as they come as opposed to waiting until after the deadline.
· Two pre-submission online workshops will be scheduled in October-November 2026 (one for accommodating the time zone in North America and Europe, the other for Asia and Australia), where the SI guest editors will give background to this SI, bring together interested scholars, and answer questions. Participating in these workshops will not be a precondition for acceptance of authors' manuscripts and participating in these workshops does not guarantee manuscript acceptance into the SI. Further details will be shared closer to the workshops' dates. Please also watch for pre-submission workshops that will be organized in 2027 at key conferences, including Australasian Consortium for Entrepreneurship Research Excellence (ACERE) Conference, Academy of Management (AoM) Annual Meeting, and Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference (BCERC).
· If a manuscript is rejected (as a desk reject or in the normal review process) without the option to resubmit, then it cannot be submitted again to ETP as a regular submission.
References
Bakker, R. M., & Shepherd, D. A. (2017). Pull the plug or take the plunge: Multiple opportunities and the speed of venturing decisions in the Australian mining industry. Academy of Management Journal, 60, 130–155.
Bansal, P., Reinecke, J., Suddaby, R., & Langley, A. (2022). Temporal work: The strategic organization of time. Strategic Organization, 20, 6–19.
Bansal, P., Shipp, A. J., Crilly, D., Jansen, K. J., Okhuysen, G. A., & Langley, A. (2025). Theorizing time in management and organizations. Academy of Management Review, 50, 7–19.
Bird, B. J., & West, P. G. (1997). Time and entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 22, 5–9.
Bruton, G. D., Ahlstrom, D., & Li, H. L. (2010). Institutional theory and entrepreneurship: Where are we now and where do we need to move in the future? Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 34, 421–440.
Davidsson, P. (2015). Entrepreneurial opportunities and the entrepreneurship nexus: A re-conceptualization. Journal of Business Venturing, 30, 674–695.
Fisher, G., Josefy, M. A., & Neubert, E. (2024). Event-based entrepreneurship. Journal of Business Venturing, 39, 106366. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2023.106366
Garcia, R., Atkins, R., Bonillas, E., et al. (2025). How should we study heterogeneity in entrepreneurship? Moving the field to an inclusive approach. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 10422587251347048.
Keyhani, M., & Lévesque, M. (2016). The equilibrating and disequilibrating effects of entrepreneurship: Revisiting the central premises. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 10, 65–88.
Keyhani, M., Lévesque, M., & Madhok, A. (2015). Toward a theory of entrepreneurial rents: A simulation of the market process. Strategic Management Journal, 36, 79–96.
Langley, A. (1999). Strategies for theorizing from process data. Academy of Management Review, 24, 691–710.
Levasseur, L., Shipp, A. J., Fried, Y., Rousseau, D. M., & Zimbardo, P. G. (2020). New perspectives on time perspective and temporal focus. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 41, 235–243.
Levasseur, L., Lanivich, S. E., Kalubandi, S. C., & Sanaria, A. (2024). Time perspective and entrepreneurs' alertness. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 48, 1358–1403.
Lévesque, M., & Stephan, U. (2020). It's time we talk about time in entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 44, 163–184.
Ployhart, R. E., & Vandenberg, R. J. (2010). Longitudinal research: The theory, design, and analysis of change. Journal of Management, 36, 94–120.
Shevchenko, A., Lévesque, M., & Pagell, M. (2016). Why firms delay reaching true sustainability. Journal of Management Studies, 53, 911–935.
Stephan, U. (2022). Cross-cultural innovation and entrepreneurship and Innovation. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 9, 277–308.
Stephan, U., Uhlaner, L. M., & Stride, C. (2025). Institutions and social entrepreneurship: A hierarchy of institutions to revisit institutional voids, support, and configurations. Journal of International Business Studies. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41267-025-00829-4
Suddaby, R., & Foster, W. M. (2017). History and organizational change. Journal of Management, 43, 19–38.
Vedula, S., Doblinger, C., Pacheco, D., York, J. G., Bacq, S., Russo, M. V., & Dean, T. J. (2022). Entrepreneurship for the public good: A review, critique, and path forward for social and environmental entrepreneurship research. Academy of Management Annals, 16, 391–425.
Wood, M. S., Bakker, R. M., & Fisher, G. (2021). Back to the future: A time-calibrated theory of entrepreneurial action. Academy of Management Review, 46, 147–171.
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Ludvig Levasseur
Assistant Professor
Indian Institute of Management Bangalore
Bangalore
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