The performance of economies depends upon entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs identify new opportunities, implement new technologies, provide new products and services, and generally, make an economy vibrant. Yet, little is understood of the institutional structure that supports entrepreneurship or of the economic and sociological factors that encourage entrepreneurial activity. The papers in this volume represent research on these issues. The material is relevant for both an academic and lay audience. Three papers by Kortum and Lerner; Thomas; and Ziedonis and Hall examine the US patent system and its relationship to venture capital, its impact on R&D expenditures and access to new technologies, and its affect on "patent portfolio races." Two others by Prasad, Vozikis, and Bruton, and Quadrini address financing issues, including the importance of private savings by entrepreneurs for self financing of new ventures and for signaling venture quality. Quadrini shows that entrepreneurs experience greater upward mobility than do others in the population. A related paper by Lowe explores the role and experience of start-ups in commercializing university inventions, a growing source of new technology. Kerkvliet and Shogren examine innovation in the institutions used by firms to obtain productive inputs. Two other papers by Roberson-Saunders and Holcombe examine the characteristics of entrepreneurs and the importance of entrepreneurial activity in the economy in the generation of new products, processes, and services and outlines policies for encouraging entrepreneurship. This collection of papers highlights the variety of issues associated with gaining a better understanding of entrepreneurship.

This comprehensive handbook offers a state-of-the-art guide to new frontiers of African entrepreneurship. Written from a Pan-African perspective by a cast of international authors, the book addresses the rapid modernisation and evolution of African entrepreneurship and business practices. It maps new developments in entrepreneurial ecosystems, technology and digital entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship in conflict zones, and gender and diversity issues. It proposes new models for entrepreneurial financing and explores the contrast between entrepreneurship in high-technology urban centers with peripheral rural districts and conflict zones. Bringing together empirical insights and case studies from countries across Africa, the Handbook illuminates regional and contextual differences and shares theoretical and practical insights which inform policy and practice. It is an ideal guide for researchers and students working on international business, entrepreneurship and emerging economies. It will also inform policymakers in developing context-informed entrepreneurial policies and initiatives in Africa.

Business leaders are being lost - in a business world that so desperately needs leadership today. Although women now represent half of all managers, they hold less than 10 percent of the top positions in U.S. corporations. Somehow, women are being lost on their way up. Much has been written about women leaders; rarely do we hear them speak. The Lost Leaders presents, in their own voices, the personal stories of women who achieved success in corporate leadership but have chosen to abandon their corporate careers. Readers will hear their own triumphs and struggles in the stories these women tell. When taken together, these stories provide a fascinating glimpse of the culture that exists in the contemporary corporation. The Lost Leaders examines what happened - and what is still happening - to women who could be leaders but have chosen instead to leave corporate environments. Heppner shows us that, though there have been tremendous changes since the careers depicted here began, the environment that led these women to leave is still prevalent. Grounded firmly in academic research, Heppner writes in an accessible style that is of interest to business professionals, students, and researchers alike, capturing a unique time in our cultural history and illuminating today's workplace.

This edited book explores how stakeholders play a key part in any entrepreneurial endeavour because of their investment in the outcome. This book highlights that it is important to understand the reason and rationale for stakeholder engagement in entrepreneurship. Furthermore, this book showcases how there are different kinds of stakeholders from businesses directly linked to an entity to others that have a more policy influence on the industry segment. This book demonstrates that it is useful to understand to what extent stakeholders influence entrepreneurial decision making. This book states that most stakeholders tend to take an indirect role in the governance of a business in terms of what strategic decisions are made. This can change in times of crisis or change depending on the nature of the relationship. This book makes the case that stakeholders can take positive action in the form of advice or help. This book asserts that stakeholders who have an ongoing direct role are likely to invest more time and effort in an entrepreneurial endeavour. This book uncovers that it is important to re-evaluate on a continual basis whether the relationship is working and what needs to be done in order to increase efficiency. This edited book focuses on the role of stakeholders in an entrepreneurial context thereby being amongst the first research books to place specific attention on stakeholder management through public and private partnerships.

Developing nations currently utilize various methods and practices used in most entrepreneurial activities. Manipulating these processes to work in a categorically low-income area, however, can be challenging. Micro-Entrepreneurship and Micro-Enterprise Development in Malaysia: Emerging Research and Opportunities provides emerging research exploring the theoretical and practical aspects of entrepreneurial promotional programs and applications within global economics. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as emerging economics, organizational development, and gender diversity, this book is ideally designed for entrepreneurs, policymakers, governmental and non-governmental organizations, business professionals, academics, researchers, and students seeking current research on improving the socio-economic condition of low-income households through various entrepreneurial activities.

The Business and Society (BAS) 360 book series is an annual publication targeting cutting-edge developments in the broad business and society field, such as stakeholder management, corporate social responsibility and citizenship, business ethics, sustainability, social entrepreneurship and others. Each volume will feature a comprehensive discussion and review of the current "state" of the research and theoretical developments in a specific business and society area. Volume Five focuses on research drawn from work grounded in Social Entrepreneurship. Leading scholars in this discipline contribute to a 360-degree evaluation of theory, including cross-discipline research, empirical explorations, cross-cultural studies, literature critiques, and meta-analysis projects. Social Entrepreneurship will be useful for emerging and senior business school educators researching and teaching in the business and society field, as well as doctoral and masters level students across the business, social sciences and natural sciences seeking to learn about this multi-discipline and sustained field of management study.

The aim of this book is to analyze the relationships among entrepreneurship, regional development and culture in the current economy. Using an institutional approach, it examines the main theoretical issues and practices and their effect on different dimensions of society and the economy. Business creation is considered a key element of economic growth, innovation and employment. In recent years, entrepreneurial scholars have studied the factors that affect entrepreneurship and drive economic growth. In doing so, these scholars have aimed to understand what promotes entrepreneurial activity and also how to improve the development of regions or countries to increase wealth in society. The institutional approach can be applied to the entrepreneurship field to understand the phenomenon of entrepreneurship. This view considers the role of environment in the decision to create a company, which is critical to entrepreneurship, innovation and economic growth. Environment relates to legal aspects, public policy and support services (formal institutions) but is especially important in terms of sociocultural context (informal institutions). The creation of new ventures is greatly influenced by culture. Furthermore, it is important to highlight the influence of entrepreneurship on regional development, specifically through job creation, stimulation of economic growth and innovation. Thus, entrepreneurship, regional development and culture are fundamental for understanding economic growth and development as well as other phenomena such as technology transfer or women's entrepreneurship. Featuring contributions and cases studies from various countries and sectors, this volume provides an essential reference for scholars, academics, and researchers in entrepreneurship, business management, innovation and economics.

This book focuses on the progress of G20 members on entrepreneurship services since the G20 Entrepreneurship Action Plan was issued at the G20 Hangzhou Summit in China. The authors analyse the similarities and differences of policy measures taken by G20 members from five aspects of entrepreneurship services: government services, fiscal and financial supports, entrepreneur services, entrepreneurship education, and fair competition for SMEs. The book aims to bridge academic research with the multilevel and diverse practice in entrepreneurial activities and explores how national policies and conditions can promote entrepreneurship among G20 members. This book will inspire the policy- makers, stakeholders in the entrepreneurship ecosystems and scholars on entrepreneurship research as well, on how to promote the entrepreneurship as an effective way to stimulate employment growth, boost innovation development, and realize economic recovery in the post- COVID-19 era.

Cultural entrepreneurship uses culture as a way to understand innovative business ventures. Culture in this edited book involves the beliefs and values associated with certain forms of behaviour. This means the way individuals are involved in business ventures is based on their cultural ideas. This edited book focuses on how cultural entrepreneurship is an important way to understand how cultural products and services such as art, food, music and literature influence the development of business ventures. Thereby highlighting the interesting and unique way cultural ideas are embedded in entrepreneurial activities.

This study aims to reconstruct the activities of enterprises and individuals over two decades in one developing country (Hungary), within and across four politico-economic domains (agriculture, infrastructure/construction, commerce, and manufacturing), from the initial Stalinist obsession with heavy industry (Volume 1: Creating the Theft Economy, 1945-1957) through later reforms paying greater attention to profitable farming and the provision of abundant consumer goods (Volume 2: From Chaos to Contradiction, 1957-1972, forthcoming 2023). It provides hundreds of grounded, granular stories for reflection, as reported by actors and direct observers, ranging from innovation and improvisation to obstruction, failure, and fraud. Further, it offers an otherwise-unobtainable close encounter with another world, familiar in some respects while amazingly peculiar in others. The social history of enterprise and work in postwar Central European nations "building socialism" has long been underdeveloped. Through extensive macro-level research on planning and policy in Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and other Bloc countries, a grand narrative has been framed: reconstruction and breakneck industrialization under Soviet tutelage; then eventual mismanagement, stagnation and crisis, leading to collapse. This book seeks to explore what socialism actually looked like to those sustaining (or enduring} it as they faced forward into an unknowable future, to assess how and where it did (or didn't) work, and to recount how ordinary people responded to its opportunities and constraints. This study will appeal to readers interested in understanding how businesses worked day-to-day in a planned economy, how enterprise practices and technological strategies shifted during the first postwar generation, how novice managers and technicians emerged during rapid industrialization, how peasants learned to farm cooperatively, how organizations improvised and adapted, how political purity and practical expertise contended for control, and how the controversies and convulsions of the postwar decades shaped a deeply flawed project to "build socialism."

This book presents the most recent innovations, trends, and challenges in several aspects of Industry 4.0, including the key technologies and business impacts. The book is relevant to a variety of stakeholders due to Industry 4.0's broad impact in many fields. Topics include digital workplace solutions for employee engagement, entrepreneurship and innovation, and Blockchain for business security. The authors cover Industry 4.0 both from a theoretical and applicable standpoint.

Immigration is currently one of the most vivid challenges the European Union faces. Ways of introducing new migrants to society and economy pose significant challenges, thus some guidelines for the policy design towards migrations are in need. This book points out patterns of approaches leading to entrepreneurial activities, implemented by the immigrants from the Far East: China, Vietnam, South Korea, India, and Philippines. At these stage comparisons with other countries are both possible and necessary, as many countries all over the world face challenges connected with defining migration policies. From the studies included in the book, readers will gain first-hand knowledge about immigrant entrepreneurship in Poland against the Western European or USA background of similar processes described by researchers in other countries. The areas covered in the studies include the main reasons for starting new ventures and the sources of opportunities, processes of defining customers and factors influencing the choice between an ethnic and local business, immigrants' approaches to building market position, defining success and development, as well as the issues of cultural, institutional, legal and economic differences. The studies show that significant differences in entrepreneurial activities appear between the first and second generations of immigrants. They also depict how entrepreneurial activities help in assimilation processes, as well as in building ties between the immigrants and host societies. Moreover, the study will deepen the understanding of entrepreneurial activities of immigrants in countries that are traditionally considered to be less attractive targets for migration. Thus, the processes of migration will be not only better understood and described but will also allow to provide some guidelines both for policymakers and future researchers

Bringing much needed clarity and definition to the term 'minority entrepreneur,' this authoritative and timely handbook explores the distinctive challenges that minority communities face when founding and managing new ventures. The handbook is inclusive of any community who might be considered disadvantaged or under-represented in terms of entrepreneurial activity and included are women, youths, seniors, disabled, immigrants, Indigenous peoples, LBGTQ+, ex-offenders, Roma, refugees and many others. Chapters highlight the idiosyncratic nature of the many communities examined before offering frameworks and models that draw together the various findings. With a cast of international contributors, this scholarly handbook discusses the surrounding literature of minority entrepreneurship and takes an all-encompassing approach to its interpretation. It also addresses the sorely under-researched area of entrepreneurial behaviour among minorities and disadvantaged groups. This is particularly important for policymakers tasked with designing and delivering initiatives that are appropriate for the needs of these communities. Ultimately this handbook contributes to existing knowledge by: * providing a current understanding of the literature for each of the communities; * investigating the uniqueness of the entrepreneurial behaviour within the communities; * offering new frameworks/models from which future researchers can build new knowledge. The handbook provides a comprehensive account of an important and fast emerging field of entrepreneurship, and is an invaluable resource for students, researchers and policymakers.

Yukichi Fukuzawa was one of the most effective business entrepreneurs in early modern Japan. He was the inspiration for the Yokohama Specie Bank, without which the Japanese could not have set up a sound banking system. He began the bookstore chain Maruzen. He was adviser to the newly founded shipbuilding and mining giant Mitsubishi and helped bring the house of Mitsui into the modern age. This is both the story of his life and his transforming impact on Japan's economy.

This business book is great for leaders, middle managers and entrepreneurs interested in the following categories:

• Small Business
• Entrepreneurship
• Marketing
• Strategy
• Branding
• Customer Experience

Make it easy for customers to choose you; whatever your business, product or service.

With customers now subconsciously weighing up their massively expanded options in terms of purchase friction (how easy it is to spend) and shopping reward (the extras inherent to the buying experience); your job is to make it easy for them to choose you

When is high friction bad? Friction includes frustrations like putting a coin in a supermarket trolley lock, too many clicks, and hidden frictions from awkward presentation, process and offer. Reward includes quality of business support, amazing retail environments, even emotional issues such as trust and belonging.

When is high friction good? What value do different customers place on friction and reward across different buying scenarios? How can I benchmark against competitors? And, where are the big opportunities and where should we focus effort and resource? How do I market improved experiences to win customers?

Friction Reward teaches you how to understand, measure and improve every single possible customer interaction by applying techniques outlined in the book to your customer experiences and organisations.

Readers will:

• Create easier, faster and improved customer experiences by reducing friction and increasing reward.
• Discover how reducing friction attracts new customers, increases spend from existing ones and gives you a competitive advantage.
• Understand how the world's leading retailers, B2B sellers and public service providers are winning using these insights.
• Learn how to apply practical tools and technologies to their own customer and user scenarios both online and in the physical world.

Increased interest in handicrafts has led to more people becoming artisans both as a hobby and a business activity, making Artisan Entrepreneurship a growing phenomenon. This has been particularly relevant during the COVID-19 crisis in which individuals and communities began engaging with more bespoke crafting at home. This book focuses on these practices from different perspectives including the art, cultural and social sectors, thereby highlighting the emerging new types of artisan activity that preserve cultural elements while incorporating emerging technologies like social media. This volume analyses artisan entrepreneurship using different approaches including at an individual, group and societal point of view providing a better understanding about how these handicraft workers contribute to societal wellbeing and aid cultural heritage preservation for future generations. Each chapter of this book looks at these practices in a different way, enabling the practical and theoretical significance of artisan entrepreneurship to emerge and presenting a holistic understanding of artisan entrepreneurship in different contextual settings. Artisan Entrepreneurship provides a unique way in which to understand an important type of enterprise that has been neglected but recently had a resurgence. This book provides a fundamental contribution to the field of artisan entrepreneurship.

This volume analyzes the barriers to, as well as new drivers for, entrepreneurial development in post-communist countries. The contributors present various country studies, mainly in the Balkans region, and investigate entrepreneurial behavior and best practices, financial instruments, factors for the success of small and medium-sized companies, and related policy implications. The book will appeal to scholars, policymakers and professionals interested in entrepreneurial obstacles and challenges in the countries of the Balkans region.

This is the first comprehensive book that aims to understand how the novel coronavirus has impacted the venture capital industry. The analysis suggests that the industry has been undergoing profound changes. Specifically, the book assesses the short- and long-term impact of the economic, political, and social restrictions post COVID-response on different stakeholders in the venture capital ecosystem, including general partners (GPs), limited partners (LPs), and entrepreneurs. It also aims to answer the question whether current changes to the venture capital industry are likely to renew and promote its overhaul, or simply perpetuate its decline. The book will be of interest to students, academics, and researchers focusing on venture capital and private equity, entrepreneurial finance, entrepreneurship, and new venture creation as well as industry practitioners