Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice: Author Guide

Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice (ET&P) is a premier scholarly journal dedicated to the conceptual, empirical, and methodological advancement of entrepreneurship research. Published bimonthly by SAGE Publications in partnership with Baylor University, the journal serves as a key outlet for scholars examining enterprise creation, family enterprise dynamics, entrepreneurial finance, and managerial cognition. For researchers deciding where to submit original manuscripts, ET&P represents one of the highest-prestige venues in the field, holding elite indexing across international business school research registries.

What It Is

Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice is an international, peer-reviewed academic journal published six times per year. The journal publishes under Print ISSN 1042-2587 and Electronic ISSN (eISSN) 1540-6520. Operating at the intersection of business strategy, organizational behavior, and economics, ET&P provides a rigorous forum for the scholarly study of entrepreneurial behavior and institutional venturing.

The journal holds prominent standing within international business school evaluation frameworks. ET&P is an established member of the Financial Times 50 journal list (FT50), used by the Financial Times to compile global business school research rankings. In addition, ET&P is indexed in Clarivate’s Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) and Elsevier’s Scopus, maintaining a Clarivate Journal Citation Reports (JCR) Impact Factor of 6.9, placing it in the top decile (Q1) of Business and Management journals.

Unlike practitioner business magazines, ET&P is an academic research journal. It prioritizes novel theoretical contributions, rigorous quantitative and qualitative methodologies, and replicable empirical findings that enrich broader management research paradigms.

Who Runs It and What It Covers

The governance of Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice reflects decades of institutional development. The publication originated in 1976 as the American Journal of Small Business (AJSB) at the University of Baltimore. In the late 1980s, the journal relocated to Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business under the leadership of Dr. Ray Bagby. As entrepreneurship emerged as a distinct theoretical science, the editorial leadership retitled the journal Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice in 1988 (Volume 13).

Today, ET&P operates through an institutional partnership between Baylor University and the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE), serving as an official scholarly journal of the association. Since 2018, SAGE Publications has managed commercial publication, worldwide distribution, digital archiving, and subscription access.

The substantive scope of ET&P covers diverse theoretical traditions across the entrepreneurial lifecycle. Primary topical areas include:

• New Venture Creation and Growth: Opportunity discovery, entrepreneurial decision-making, and resource assembly under uncertainty.
• Family Enterprise and Succession: Multi-generational governance, socioemotional wealth, and strategic renewal in closely held firms.
• Venture Financing: Seed-stage equity, business angels, venture capital investment decisions, and crowdfunding.
• Corporate Entrepreneurship: Strategic entrepreneurship, internal corporate venturing, and employee intrapreneurship.
• Entrepreneurial Ecosystems and Public Policy: Regional incubation, technology transfer, acceleration, and institutional frameworks.
• Social and Sustainable Venturing: Hybrid organizing, social impact measurement, and environmental enterprise models.

Accepted manuscript formats include original empirical papers (econometric panel analyses, field experiments, grounded theory, and comparative case designs), theoretical manuscripts introducing new conceptual models, and systematic literature syntheses.

How to Search or Use It

Scholars preparing to submit original work to Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice follow a structured submission and review workflow through ScholarOne Manuscripts:

1. Access the ScholarOne Manuscripts Portal: Navigate to the journal submission portal at mc.manuscriptcentral.com/etp and log in using Clarivate credentials or a registered ORCID account.
2. Enforce Strict Document Anonymization: ET&P mandates double-anonymized peer review. The main manuscript file must omit author names, institutional affiliations, contact emails, and identifiable acknowledgments. Self-citations must be framed neutrally in the third person.
3. Assemble the Separate Title Page: Create an independent title page document containing the full manuscript title, all co-author names, academic ranks, institutional affiliations, corresponding author details, and formal funding disclosures. This file is uploaded separately and withheld from reviewers.
4. Input Metadata in ScholarOne: In the Author Dashboard, click “Start New Submission.” Enter the manuscript title, a structured abstract (up to 250 words outlining theoretical framing, methodology, key findings, and implications), and 4 to 6 index keywords. Select your primary subject category.
5. Format Citations to APA Specifications: Ensure that all in-text citations, statistical notations, figure legends, and terminal bibliographic references comply with the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA 7th edition).
6. Complete Author Declarations: Complete mandatory disclosures in ScholarOne, including confirmations of manuscript originality, conflict-of-interest statements, institutional ethics board (IRB) approvals for human participant data, and a data availability statement.
7. Upload Component Files and Inspect the PDF Proof: Upload the anonymized text, high-resolution figures, appendices, and separate title page into their designated file categories. Generate and review the consolidated PDF proof to verify layout and character integrity before submitting.

Strengths and Limits

Authors evaluating ET&P should consider the journal’s key advantages and editorial constraints:

Strengths:

• Elite Institutional Prestige: Inclusion in the Financial Times 50 journal list provides substantial institutional currency for tenure, promotion, and doctoral placement worldwide.
• High Citation Impact: A 6.9 Impact Factor in Clarivate’s SSCI ensures extensive international readership and scholarly citations.
• Permanent Digital Archiving: SAGE assigns permanent Crossref DOIs to all articles, integrated into preservation networks including Portico and CLOCKSS.
• Flexible Publishing Models: Authors can publish without author fees under standard subscription access, or choose immediate open access through the SAGE Choice program.

Limits:

• High Desk-Reject Rates: High submission volumes and FT50 standards lead to rigorous screening; descriptive papers lacking clear theoretical advancement are typically desk-rejected.
• Strict Theoretical Focus: The journal rarely accepts localized business case studies or descriptive surveys lacking generalizable implications for management science.
• Open Access Costs: While traditional subscription publishing is free, optional open access publication incurs substantial article processing charges unless covered by an institutional transformative agreement.

Alternatives

Authors evaluating where to publish entrepreneurship research frequently compare ET&P against alternative peer-reviewed outlets. The table below compares leading journals in the discipline:

Journal Name	Publisher and Affiliation	FT50 Status	Review Model	Primary Scope and Focus
Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice	SAGE / Baylor University / USASBE	Yes	Double-anonymized	Broad entrepreneurship theory, venture creation, family business, corporate venturing, and ecosystems.
Journal of Business Venturing (JBV)	Elsevier	Yes	Double-anonymized	Cognitive processes, opportunity evaluation, behavioral venture creation, and entrepreneurial psychology.
Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal (SEJ)	Wiley / Strategic Management Society	Yes	Double-anonymized	Intersection of strategic management and entrepreneurship, dynamic capabilities, and firm-level innovation.
Journal of Small Business Management (JSBM)	Taylor and Francis / ICSB	No	Double-anonymized	SME management, international small business policy, owner-manager dynamics, and regional development.
Small Business Economics	Springer	No	Double-anonymized	Applied economic theory, institutional economics, public policy, and econometric analysis of entrepreneurship.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the relationship between the Journal of Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice and ET&P?

The phrase journal of entrepreneurship theory and practice is a common bibliographic query used by authors and librarians. The official title of the publication is Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice (ET&P). The journal was founded in 1976 as the American Journal of Small Business before adopting its current title in 1988.

Does Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice charge submission fees?

No. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice does not charge manuscript submission fees or page charges. Authors who publish under the traditional subscription model incur zero author fees.

Can authors publish open access in Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice?

Yes. ET&P participates in the SAGE Choice hybrid open access program. Upon acceptance, authors can publish open access under a Creative Commons license by paying an article processing charge, or via institutional Read and Publish transformative agreements.

What peer review process is utilized by the journal?

The journal enforces a double-anonymized peer review system where author and reviewer identities are concealed throughout evaluation. Initial desk screening is conducted by the editorial team prior to external expert review.

Which citation and formatting style does ET&P require?

All manuscripts submitted to ET&P must follow the guidelines of the American Psychological Association (APA 7th edition), including in-text citations, statistical formatting, table layouts, and terminal references.

Sources

• SAGE Journals: Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice Official Journal Information and Author Guidelines, journals.sagepub.com/home/etp (accessed November 2026).
• SAGE Publications: SAGE Choice Open Access Publishing and Transformative Agreement Policies, sagepub.com/en-us/nam/sage-choice (accessed November 2026).
• Baylor University Hankamer School of Business: ET&P Institutional History and USASBE Sponsorship Records (accessed November 2026).
• Clarivate Analytics: Journal Citation Reports (JCR) SSCI Indexing and Impact Factor Data for Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice (accessed November 2026).