A Proposed Idiographic Approach to the Study of Entrepreneurs‪.‬

INTRODUCTION Although an idiographic approach to research methodology has a long history in the behavioral sciences (Allport, 1937), has been suggested for the study of organizational behavior (Luthans & Davis, 1982), and has been applied to the study of leaders and managers (Hemphill, 1959; Mintzberg, 1973; Luthans & Lockwood, 1984; Luthans, Hodgetts & Rosenkrantz, 1988), its application to the study of entrepreneurs has been absent. Allport (1937) broadly stated that the idiographic approach attempts to understand a particular event in nature or society. As a research method, the idiographic approach is characterized by individual-centered and naturalistic environmental contexts, and by qualitatively-based direct observation data gathering techniques (Luthans & Martinko, 1987). The idiographic approach also takes an emic (an insider's, subject's definition of the research situation) perspective (Morey & Luthans, 1984). By contrast, the more popular nomothetic approach is almost a completely opposite methodology. Nomothetic research is characterized by group-centered and controlled environmental contexts and by quantitatively-based indirect measures such as questionnaires and interviews (Luthans & Martinko, 1987). Importantly, under the nomothetic approach, an etic perspective is taken whereby the researcher defines the situation and develops the research questions (Morey & Luthans, 1984). The focus in on indirect measurement and sophisticated statistical analysis that are testing predetermined hypotheses.