Kavitha.K

ENTREPRENEURSHIP, MODERNIZATION AND SMALL BUSINESS

This special issue brings together research on small firms, innovation, and entrepreneurship to show how closely these areas are connected, even though each has developed its own literature and can be studied on its own. Rather than treating them as separate ideas, the issue highlights how they overlap and reinforce one another in practice. Since the time of Schumpeter, scholars have consistently linked entrepreneurship with the ability to create new combinations of resources, leading to innovations in products and processes. Innovation, in this sense, is not just an outcome of entrepreneurship but one of its defining features and a key driver of economic change. Research has also long emphasized the strong connection between entrepreneurship and small businesses. Small firms often provide a more supportive setting for entrepreneurial activity and innovation because they depend less on formal systems and large-scale resources. Instead, they thrive on commitment, flexibility, and close