What characterizes the phenomenon of (small) firm growth, and how can it best be studied? Why and how do firms grow - and why don't they? Is firm growth externally determined or the result of managers' visions and actions? What are the different paths that firms follow in order to achieve high growth? Is growth evidence of entrepreneurship - and is growth always desirable? In this book, three leading scholars have integrated some of their most important research in order to answer these questions on firm growth. The result is a volume that builds on studies of many thousands of firms in several different projects. It offers deep insights into the firm growth phenomenon and how it can be studied. This research-based study promises to be a valuable resource for academics and students focussing on business and management, and, more specifically, entrepreneurship. Researchers who aspire to design and conduct further studies leading to deeper and better established insights into firm growth will also find the book invaluable, as will those who encourage and assist firm growth as part of their profession.

This exciting book provides fresh insight into how institutions, governments, regulations, economic freedom and morality impact entrepreneurship and public policy. Each chapter contains a rigorous analysis of the consequences of public policy and the effects of institutional decisions on the productivity of entrepreneurs. Expert contributors highlight the importance of institutions for economic outcomes while focusing specifically on the impact of public policy. One standout feature is the presentation of concrete examples regarding the role of institutions as well a clear analysis of entrepreneurship research. The editors also examine and compare productive versus unproductive public policies. Some of the conclusions made within this book include: Successful recruitment spending by states creates an incentive for unproductive entrepreneurs to seek economic rents Regulatory measures impact firms in a continuous and evolving fashion Economic actions and morality may converge given certain conditions More economic freedom in a given country is associated with greater levels of entrepreneurship Public Policy, Productive and Unproductive Entrepreneurship will help policymakers direct their efforts at creating a positive economic environment for entrepreneurs to flourish and give scholars a better understanding of the role policy plays in entrepreneurial activity. Its practical application for academic research will be great for students, helping them to connect theoretical economic fundamentals to real and familiar economic outcomes. Contributors include: J. Fetzner, J.C. Hall, P.G. Klein, M. Latta, R.A. Lawson, G.M. Randolph, M. Rivero, S. Roychoudhury, M.E. Ryan, R.F. Salvino, R.S. Sobel, M.T. Tasto, P.A. Yakovlev

This book makes a rare - but often advocated - contribution to research in entrepreneurship and international business by providing a richly contextualised longitudinal case study of the growth and internationalisation of a cluster of small firms over more than 20 years. Sara McGaughey presents a vivid, ethnographically-inspired narrative using creative forms of writing - including diary extracts, dramas, personal narratives and a cartoon - that draws the reader into the world experienced by the entrepreneurs, and conveys the unfolding context of the research process itself. The author interprets key events and activities such as export market choice, institutional entrepreneurship and portfolio activities in international new venturing through the lens of legitimacy and legitimation processes. The rich empirical and methodological contextualisation invites all readers to reinterpret these events and activities using their own diverse perspectives. This unique book will strongly appeal to practitioners and scholars of international entrepreneurship, international business, business history and organisation studies, as well as those interested in research methods used in these fields.

International Entrepreneurship in Family Businesses illustrates that family firms have always been active agents in the global economy and that their participation in the international competitive dynamic will only increase in the coming years. Indeed many of the large multinational firms that dominate today's world markets were founded as, and continue to be, family firms. The authors document the particularities of the family business phenomenon from a holistic, multi-paradigmatic, and global viewpoint. The book integrates intensive studies of family business that encompass wide-ranging areas of research and contexts, including psychology, sociology, organizational behaviour, financial studies, strategic management and internationalization. Practical examples and case studies of multinational family firms underpin the exploratory empirical research. Academics, researchers and students of international business, and more specifically, family business will find much to interest in them in this book, as will entrepreneurs and practitioners with a vested interest in the family firm.

This book - the third in the Movements in Entrepreneurship series - examines entrepreneurship as a societal phenomenon. It provides an in-depth study of the social aspects of entrepreneurship, illustrating how entrepreneurship affects society. The need to move beyond economy to disclose entrepreneurship in its societal forms is demonstrated, as is the relevance of our understanding of entrepreneurship as a societal phenomenon. The contributors show that entrepreneurship is a society-creating force and as such, it evokes new questions for entrepreneurship research and attempts to engage with new theoretical formulations. They begin with discussions on early Schumpeter and a rhetorical analysis of the current academic literature on social entrepreneurship. They go on to present myriad contextual examples of how entrepreneurship can shape social change, and indicate how this is initiated through various social settings, relationships and communities. Through rich empirical work this book explores the social of 'social entrepreneurship' and in doing so shows us how entrepreneurship is at home where society is created. As such, it will prove a fascinating read for academics, researchers and students with an interest in entrepreneurship, sociology and economic sociology.

Social entrepreneurship is one of the most controversial actualities of the modern economy. On the one hand, social entrepreneurship makes up for "market failures" and prevents the deficit of socially essential goods and services in the marketplace, acting as their supplier. On the other hand, the survival of social entrepreneurship in an aggressive market environment is a challenging task, the fulfilment of which may distort the original essence of social entrepreneurship. Comprising a collection of research presented at the International Scientific Conference Advanced Issues on Social Entrepreneurship, this contributed volume offers a global economic analysis of social entrepreneurship. Whilst social entrepreneurship is indispensable to the modern economy, the current controversial model of its organization means it cannot fully accomplish its mission. This book offers potential solutions to this problem with the global and national strategies of economic growth and social progress. It includes a focus on emerging markets, in which the role of social entrepreneurship is especially high. This book is aimed at scholars and students who are interested in social entrepreneurship and corporate economics, and practitioners involved in this field. It will also be of interest to policy makers in the development and implementation of a national economic policy for support for social entrepreneurship in emerging markets.

Charged with developing learning, teaching and assessment practices that go beyond delivering discipline-specific subject knowledge, the demands on entrepreneurial educators have increased in recent decades. This guide will help educators develop more entrepreneurial graduates by demonstrating how they can equip learners with key competencies such as team working, creativity, problem solving, and opportunity recognition. This engaging How to Guide shares the journeys of educators working within different contexts to help the reader design an imaginative entrepreneurship program. Providing critical perspectives and observations that are both forward- looking and practice-led, each chapter offers a wide range of insights into the unique practices of some of the world's leading educators in entrepreneurship, education and creativity. With a focus on the development of students and their ventures, educators at any level or discipline within higher education are invited to reflect upon and advance their own practices. Illustrating a vast range of contemporary practices in the field of entrepreneurial education, this compelling book will be an essential tool for any educator whose teaching incorporates entrepreneurship, enterprise, and creativity.

'Entrepreneurial identities permeate virtually every facet of the venturing process, but the study of these identities has received surprisingly little attention among scholars. Thomas Duening and Matthew Metzger address this problem with this insightful and timely edited volume. They have compiled an impressive array of research that covers both macro- and micro-level explorations of entrepreneurial identities. Most importantly, these chapters provide numerous examples of tangible advice to interested educators about how to foster the entrepreneurial spirit and build the entrepreneurial identity within their own students. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in entrepreneurial identities.' - Charles Murnieks, Oregon State University, US Entrepreneurship is an academic discipline that, despite decades of growth in research and teaching activity lacks a traditionally distinct or common pedagogy. In this book, editors Thomas N. Duening and Matthew L. Metzger explore entrepreneurial identity as a new basis upon which curricula can be constructed for aspiring entrepreneurs. Critically, this perspective is based on the insight that there is a fundamental difference between venture development and entrepreneur development. Unfortunately, most current interventions for aspiring entrepreneurs focus on the former at the expense of the latter. The editors have collected work from an international team of authors with diverse views on how identity theory applies to entrepreneur development. Chapters focus primarily on macro-level identity issues (that is, how do these entrepreneurial archetypes form, persist, and sometimes change) or micro-level identity issues (that is, how can educators and resource providers identify, communicate, and incentivize identity construction among aspiring entrepreneurs). This book provides a general theoretical background and offers numerous suggestions for application and further research. One example of this is the 'For Further Reading' feature at the end of each chapter which is perfect for assisting those who want to delve deeper into various topics. This essential resource will be of interest to researchers, resource providers and students alike. Contributors include: D. Boje, A. Donnellon, T.N. Duening, R. Gill, B. Mathias, M.L. Metzger, R. Smith, K. Williams-Middleton

The protection of the environment and economic growth are two important aspects of modern sustainability initiatives. By placing these two together, a competitive advantage is developed by utilizing green factors with investing. Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Investments in the Green Economy is an essential reference publication for the latest research on green entrepreneurship and its impacts on investment activity within sustainable development and competitive markets. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics and perspectives such as contemporary enterprises, global feeding, and waste management, this book is ideally designed for practitioners, students, and academicians seeking current research on green entrepreneurship and investments.

Divided into three parts, Import Your Ideas first shares the fictional success story of two young importers. This unique narrative illustrates the techniques of importing. In the second section, Pouliot provides a how-to guide for establishing oneself as an importer--delving into every aspect of the business, including financing, negotiating, networking, packing, sourcing, contracting, and communicating. The third part discusses many of Pouliot's personal and unusual experiences working as an importer for almost fifty years, spanning the globe in such countries as Hong Kong, China, Costa Rica, Haiti, Tonga, Turkey, and Taiwan.

Import Your Ideas provides a working guide that details the tricks of the trade for importers to understand this business that has the potential to provide many exciting worldwide opportunities and experiences.

"Ted Pouliot, an international entrepreneur, businessman, and consultant for a half-century, shares his invaluable experience about what readers need to know and understand about importing from Asia and elsewhere."--Neal St. Anthony, business columnist, Minneapolis Star Tribune

This fascinating and original textbook - an excellent introductory text for both graduate and undergraduate students - attempts to enhance and advance our understanding of entrepreneurship. In this intriguing book, Bjorn Bjerke contends that entrepreneurship cannot, to any great extent, be planned in advance. He goes as far as to suggest that planning could be against the very essence of entrepreneurship. The book explains that entrepreneurship is about courage rather than willpower, is to be venturesome and undertaking whilst experimenting, networking and pushing oneself forward, and concerns exploiting mistakes as essential learning curves. The importance of the entrepreneur as a human being is strongly expressed, as is the idea that entrepreneurship is closer to art and aesthetics than science and mathematics. Language, argues the author, plays a decisive role and philosophy provides a solid basis when we try to come to grips with the nature of entrepreneurship. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Bjorn Bjerke asserts that all these points alert us to one simple fact: it is not possible to define a 'typical' entrepreneur or to present a model method of operating and supporting an entrepreneurial venture. Understanding Entrepreneurship is a truly remarkable textbook that will provide an absorbing and illuminating read for all those - academics, students and practitioners alike - with an interest in entrepreneurship.

Is social capital the 'missing link' in economics? In this vital new book, the authors argue that the 'forgotten' production factor of social capital is as crucial in economic decision-making as the other more traditional factors of production such as physical, financial and human capital. They attempt to bridge the gap between theory and reality by examining the main factors that determine entrepreneurship, co-operative movements and the creation and destruction of social capital. To address the question of how social capital is created and destroyed, the authors develop an interdisciplinary approach combining political science, economics, anthropology, sociology and history. They show how bridging social capital enforces personal contact and acts as a lubricator for human co-operation, whereas bonding social capital enforces distance between people, increasing mistrust and, consequently, transaction costs. They demonstrate how entrepreneurship can facilitate voluntary collective action and create inclusive forms of social capital. Crucial in this respect is that entrepreneurs are motivated not only by economic incentives but also by social motives. Applying historical and contemporary case studies, they identify the serious human and economic consequences that result when social capital is disregarded. The authors believe that the implications of such a discovery demand a re-evaluation of traditional economic theory. This book will contribute substantially to academic and popular debates on social capital and will be an invaluable source of reference for all social scientists. It will particularly appeal to students and scholars of public policy, economics, sociology, political science, anthropology and history.

This expansive and practical Handbook introduces the methods currently used to increase the understanding of the usefulness and versatility of a systematic approach to qualitative research in entrepreneurship. It fills a crucial gap in the literature on entrepreneurship theory, and, just as importantly, illustrates how these principles and techniques can be appropriately and fruitfully employed. The Handbook is underpinned by the belief that qualitative research has the potential to charter hitherto unexplored waters in the field of entrepreneurship and thus contribute significantly to its further advancement. The contributors seek to assist entrepreneurship researchers in making more informed choices and designing more rigorous and sophisticated studies. They achieve this by providing concrete examples of research experiences and tangible 'how to' advice. By clarifying what these research methods entail, how they are currently being used and how they can be evaluated, this Handbook constitutes a comprehensive and highly accessible methodological toolbox. Dealing with both well-accepted qualitative approaches and lesser-known, rarer and more novel approaches to the study of entrepreneurship, this Handbook will be invaluable to those studying, researching and teaching entrepreneurship.

In this book, Sigvald Harryson demonstrates how to use know-who based networking to increase knowledge whilst reducing complexity. He reveals new synergies between external and internal knowledge networking that promise to enhance the innovation performance of any transitional, transnational company. The book develops and builds upon knowledge in the interconnected areas of entrepreneurship and networking across different levels and units of analysis. In-depth studies of a wealth of absolute best practice companies are explored, illustrating how concrete management practices can be established to acquire and then transform science into sales in more time- and cost-efficient ways. A unique framework is developed to overcome the dichotomies between knowledge creation and business implementation. Through this, the author provides the necessary foundations from which profitable growth through innovation (GTI) can be developed: * Identification and analysis of the most important barriers to entrepreneurship * Enabling factors and intelligence processes required for forceful innovation * A GTI process for application in practice. Know-Who Based Entrepreneurship shows that the knowledge and innovation process is no longer limited to intracorporate know-how, but has now expanded to encompass global know-how. It will thus be invaluable to business managers, international scholars and researchers of R&D, innovation, entrepreneurship and the knowledge economy.

The retail industry has undergone enormous changes during the last thirty years.

But there is one retailer that not only has remained consistent in the fluctuating―even tenuous―market, but also has grown in the process.

"More Than a Hobby "takes you inside the story of David Green, the man who built the phenomenal success of Hobby Lobby. Green went beyond surviving in a competitive retail market to thriving, ultimately expanding his $600 start-up company into a $1.3 billion per-year enterprise.

Green's incredible accomplishments were based not on business-school theory but on his grassroots experiences as a store manager and his creative application of cutting edge ideas, including:

• Allow managers to spend no more than thirty minutes per day on paperwork
• Instead of paying a middleman, assemble as much of the product as possible in-house
• Give buyers the freedom to purchase without restraint--but within the realm of common sense
• Keep God and family first

"More Than a Hobby "is a practical field manual, filled with revolutionary ideas for all those who dream of success in the world of retail business.

Elgar Research Agendas outline the future of research in a given area. Leading scholars are given the space to explore their subject in provocative ways, and map out the potential directions of travel. They are relevant but also visionary. A Research Agenda for Entrepreneurial Cognition and Intention suggests new directions and approaches to study the internal thought processes of entrepreneurs by examining areas that have been under-researched, ignored or overlooked. Proposing new views on the idea of an entrepreneurial personality, new methodologies and theories of cognition and influence of personality, the contributors go beyond the study of individual intentions to evaluate group intentions. Furthermore, the book proposes that current research methods limit our understanding of entrepreneurial processes by not connecting to the wider entrepreneurial audience. With this in mind, key chapters focus on the role and relevance of language and gender in entrepreneurship. Academic researchers and advanced students looking to explore the latest research methods and statistical approaches will find this Research Agenda extremely useful for creating new research pathways. The case studies will also be exceptionally useful for those with a wider interest in entrepreneurship and those who wish to have a greater understanding of entrepreneurial intention. Contributors include: G.A. Alsos, G. Bertrand, M. Brannback, C.G. Brush, A.L. Carsrud, R. Germon, P.G. Greene, D.M. Hechavarria, A. Ingram, I. Jaen, F. Kropp, N. Krueger, F. Linan, A. Maalaoui, J. Mezei, S. Nikou, T.F. Nogueira, C. Perez, M. Razgallah, L. Schjoedt, K.G. Shaver, R. Yitshaki

Entrepreneurship is undoubtedly a social process and creating a firm requires both the mobilisation of social networks and the use of social capital. This book addresses the gap that exists between the need to take these factors into consideration and the understanding of how network relationships are developed and transformed across the venturing process. Expert contributions from key scholars in the field illustrate how social networks evolve across entrepreneurial stages, using studies from different regions across the world. Offering a comprehensive understanding, they emphasize the role of formal networks created inside professions and firms. Also examined is the impact of context including both family and internationally variable institutions that can help entrepreneurs to access resources and competencies useful for their projects. The book concludes by emphasizing the various research challenges: which theories are useful for our endeavors and which new methods can be used to understand the dynamics of the venturing process? Dynamic and eminently practical, this book will be invaluable to scholars and students studying the entrepreneurial process and the impact of social networks. It will also prove a useful tool in aiding entrepreneurs to optimize the development of their networks and better manage their entrepreneurial processes. Contributors include: L. Aaboen, M.A. Abebe, A.R. Anderson, M. Brettel, D. Chabaud, H. Chebbi, M. de Beer, S. Drakopoulou Dodd, A. Fayolle, R.T. Harrison, F.M. Hill, S.L. Jack, W. Jansen, W. Lamine, H. Lawton-Smith, C. Lechner, C.M. Leitch, C. Leyronas, F. Lind, S. Loup, A.B.R. Lwango, R. Mauer, S. Mian, G. Mollenhorst, J. Ngijol, S. Qureshi, T. Redd, V. Schutjens, M. Virahsawmy, S. Wu

The Theoretical World of Entrepreneurship contains the first and most comprehensive examination of more than 250 theories applicable to the study of entrepreneurship. It includes a theoretical examination of current social and economic controversies that impact entrepreneurs. Following in Weber's tradition, it also compares the doctrines of 16 Christian denominations and nine world religions which offer different conceptual windows for understanding entrepreneurs. The author ties the theoretical world of entrepreneurship together by pursuing three primary objectives. The first objective is to focus intently on the need to specify the assumptions of the theories that are used to address research questions. The second is to provide a common vision of diverse perspectives. The third is to help scholars who are seeking alternatives to the conventional wisdom. This comprehensive resource is ideal for doctoral students seeking to grasp the entire theoretical domain of the field of entrepreneurship. It also serves as a reference for professors who want to position the work that they know best within the frame of the entire theoretical world of entrepreneurship. The book is accessible enough to engage those who do not already possess an academic background.

Just how should we teach entrepreneurship? This important book provides many of the answers to this challenging question. In developing the first signature pedagogy for entrepreneurship education, Colin Jones unites the contexts of enterprise and education at the intersection of scholarship, transformational learning and student engagement. Good teaching for entrepreneurship is shown to emerge both from the educator and the students' interest. For the educator, a process of scholarly leading is required to support student interest - from the alternate perspective, students require a willingness to welcome uncertainty and challenge the existing boundaries to effectively develop a capacity for self-negotiated action. A key guide for all entrepreneurship lecturers and tutors, written for all teaching contexts, this book will challenge you to teach 'who you are', as well as what you know.