Publication bias in entrepreneurship research: An examination of dominant relations to performance

Abstract

Publication bias (PB) exists when the published literature is not representative of the population of studies. PB has largely been ignored or dismissed in entrepreneurship research as there is a general belief that only fields entrenched in dominant theoretical paradigms are capable of suffering from PB. We tested this presumption by re-analyzing the results of 15 systematic reviews (i.e., meta-analyses) of entrepreneurial antecedents and firm performance. Using three different tests, we found some degree of PB in all but three of these analyses. Our results belie the contention that entrepreneurship is immune to PB.