Realism in the Study of Entrepreneurship: A Response

An AMR dialogue piece by Ramoglou (2013), “On the Misuse of Realism in the Study of Entrepreneurship,” is a comment on our prior dialogue piece, “Epistemology, Opportunities, and Entrepreneurship: Comments on Venkataraman et al. (2012) and Shane (2012)” (Alvarez & Barney, 2013), as well as two other articles (Alvarez & Barney, 2007, 2010). Ramoglou’s main argument is that we have conflated critical realism with a positivist or materialist position. This is an important point, so we address it first before addressing the core issue — the problems that come from framing opportunities as objective, discoverable objects.