“Artificial Intelligence and the Redrawing of Boundaries in Entrepreneurship Research: A Provocation”

Call for Papers – Special Issue: “Artificial Intelligence and the Redrawing of Boundaries in Entrepreneurship Research: A Provocation”

Journal: Journal of Business Venturing Insights
Publisher: Elsevier
Submission deadline: 31 August 2026

Overview

This special issue—published by Elsevier—positions Artificial Intelligence (AI) not merely as a tool for efficiency, but as an epistemic accelerator—akin to the Large Hadron Collider in physics—for entrepreneurship research. It challenges scholars to look beyond the current "tool-based" view of AI and instead explore how AI systems act as co-actors that simulate judgment, test the limits of entrepreneurial theory, and fundamentally redraw the boundaries of what can be known, observed, and theorized in the field.

Key Research Themes

• Challenging Epistemological Boundaries: How AI (LLMs, embodied AI, autonomous agents) challenges foundational assumptions of entrepreneurial research, such as human agency, causality, and validation.

• Redefining the Entrepreneurial Subject: Investigating "Entrepreneur-AI hybrids" and the role of synthetic actors, co-founders, and digital agents in creative and strategic decision-making.

• Methodological Breakthroughs: Leveraging AI for complex theory exploration, measurement validation (scale development), multi-agent simulations, and deep qualitative analysis (process tracing, discourse analysis).

• Philosophical & Reflexive Inquiry: Examining the ontological status of AI in entrepreneurship, including ethical dilemmas, algorithmic bias, and the potential for a "provocative" rather than "polite" AI that challenges academic stagnation.

• Historical & Interdisciplinary Insights: Drawing parallels from scientific revolutions (CRISPR, quantum computing) to rethink the infrastructure of inquiry in entrepreneurship.

Submission Details

• Submission window: Open through 31 August 2026.

• Submission portal: https://www.editorialmanager.com/jbvi/default2.aspx

• Special Instructions: You must select the article type “VSI: AI and entrepreneurship” during the submission process.

• Reflective Requirement: All submissions must include a brief reflective essay (500–700 words) at the end of the manuscript discussing "cognitive debt"—how the use of AI tools influenced the procedures, assumptions, and interpretations within the research process.

Guest Editors

• Yanto Chandra, City University of Hong Kong (ychandra@cityu.edu.hk)

• Fiona Robinson, Mount Royal University (firobinson@mtroyal.ca)

• Pablo Muñoz, Durham University (pablo.munoz-roman@durham.ac.uk)

Why This Issue Matters

Entrepreneurship research currently faces a period of conceptual inertia. This special issue—published by Elsevier—seeks to reinvigorate the field's theoretical imagination by embracing the discomfort of interdisciplinarity. It invites scholars to move beyond "zero-shot prompting" and engage with AI as a system that generates the friction and fault lines necessary for meaningful theoretical breakthroughs.

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