“I have All the Feelings”: Navigating the Emotional and Practical Challenges of Research Method Innovation in Entrepreneurship Education

Other conference contribution, 2025

Research method innovation has profound societal impacts, seen in social media, Covid-19 vaccines, and global education assessments. Yet, many academics lag in adopting new methods. What hinders their engagement? Why is academia, often seen as an innovation hub, resistant when it comes to emerging methods? To explore this paradox, a three-year case study examined challenges in adopting Designed Action Sampling (DAS), an innovative research method in entrepre-neurship education. AI-powered virtual ethnography tracked 110 participants in a training program. They wanted to learn DAS to improve their teaching, structure their school improvement, network with peers or evaluate student learning.

The analysis identified 28 challenges, including concerns about time, complexity, engaging peers, and integrating DAS into existing work. Participants also struggled with formulating research questions, designing tasks, and analyzing data. A broader Academia–Practice gap emerged, suggesting the need to reassess academic incentives for method innovation and improve training approaches. This study is among the first to focus explicitly on challenges in research method innovation, contributing a challenge framework to the field.