Navigating entrepreneurship: insights from a bibliometric review of entrepreneurial drivers and inhibitors in business and management

<ns3:p>Purpose Research on inhibitors that hinder the progress of startups and their underlying motivators is increasingly gaining prominence in contemporary times. Encouraging and assisting start-up businesses to generate more employment has become an increasingly important issue at the global level. Methods This study aims to perform a bibliometric analysis of the scholarly literature pertaining to the drivers that motivate entrepreneurs and the inhibitors that influence their entrepreneurial activity. The gathered information was extracted from the Scopus and Web of Science (WoS) databases from 1991 to 2020 (three decades). R-studio was used for initial data analysis, citation and co-citation analysis, and bibliographic coupling with co-authoring. Findings The study found that the pace of start-up research has been increasing since 2009, with a mean citation per document of 30.24. During the analysis, we identified that the most contributing countries producing the maximum number of research articles on entrepreneurship are the USA, the Netherlands, Germany, China, and France. The Journal of Business Venturing produced the maximum number of research articles, followed by international entrepreneurship and management journal. Originality/value This study aims to enrich our understanding of the content and structure related to startups and how it is presented in the literature. In contrast to recent advancements in entrepreneurial drivers and inhibitors, the current study exhibits a higher level of comprehensiveness regarding the methodologies and utilized databases. The findings of this study make a valuable contribution to the existing body of literature on the factors that drive and hinder entrepreneurship.</ns3:p>