Entrepreneurial Learning and Critical Reflection: Discontinuous Events as Triggers for ‘Higher-level’ Learning

Abstract

The importance of ‘learning events’ has become an emergent theme within theorizing on how entrepreneurs learn. This article builds a deeper understanding of the learning outcomes triggered by significant, discontinuous events during the entrepreneurial process. It suggests that the domain of entrepreneurship represents a special and unique context in which to study management learning. It is argued that there is more to learning from discontinuous events than the incremental accumulation of more routinized, habitual, ‘lower-level’ learning. This article illustrates that these events have the capacity to stimulate distinctive forms of ‘higher-level’ learning—learning that is fundamental to the entrepreneur in both personal and business terms. It goes on to explore the concept of critical reflection and suggests that these learning outcomes are the result of what can be described most precisely as ‘inward’ critical self-reflection.