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Strengthening Knowledge Creation and Research in Entrepreneurship: Inclusion Matters

How is diversity and inclusion relevant to knowledge creation and research? Various studies indicate that researchers’ positionality – the various identities they hold – has a substantial impact on not only research topics, but also the theories and methods that scholars develop and use.

Written by Chhaya Kolavalli, Ph.D.

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Inclusion in research systems (specifically, research training, universities, and the publishing and funding environment within higher education) is increasingly identified as a problem.

An inclusive body of researchers is better equipped to produce relevant, actionable scholarship that accounts for diversity and difference. Why? There’s a strong link between the background, interests, and life experiences of a researcher and the questions and research topics they pursue.

Inclusion does not just mean incorporating phenotypically different researchers into existing mechanisms of knowledge production. Researchers with unique life experiences will bring with them unique ways of thinking, identifying problems and questions, developing models of research, and contributing to the field.

True inclusion efforts move beyond representing diversity and instead will create space for diverse ways of observing, thinking, theorizing, hypothesizing, testing, interpreting, and validating in research systems.

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Featured highlights

  • Innovation can arise due to diverse teams having a broader range of experiences and background to draw from, they understand a broader potential range of product users than less diverse teams, and they problem-solve better, because they think about problems in unique ways.
  • A number of studies have found that diverse teams are more resilient. Also, teams that are cognitively diverse perform more effectively and react to challenges more quickly than homogenous teams.
  • Scholars who share identities with research participants have demonstrated the ability to use their shared experiences to gather richer data, particularly on sensitive subjects.
  • An inclusive body of researchers is better equipped to produce relevant, actionable scholarship that accounts for diversity and difference.
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