Among the most vexing challenges for entrepreneurs is how to avail themselves of the necessary services--intellectual venture capital--without burning through their seed money at a rate that makes further borrowing prohibitively expensive. Traditionally, professional firms have charged entrepreneurs a fee for their services, based on billable hours and effort. Yet in the past decade, an alternative model has emerged that obviates the entrepreneurs' conundrum while still satisfying the needs of the service provider. The alternative is an equity-for-services arrangement, whereby professionals are rewarded for their work with a stake in the new venture, to be redeemed at a later date at an initial public offering (IPO), for example, or when a trust fund matures. Both parties can benefit under such an arrangement. The entrepreneur benefits by being able to afford patent attorneys, public relations consultants, recruiting firms, and all the other knowledge providers crucial to the success of a new venture, and the intellectual venture capitalists have an incentive to work toward the long-term success of the startup. This book outlines the potential risks and rewards of equity compensation, enabling both service providers and entrepreneurs to make informed decisions.

Want to know what it takes to run a successful business? How to set up and grow a company? How to effectively manage your people and create a prosperous work environment? Raw Business holds the answers. Drawing on the life lessons and core principles developed over a 30-year career running home-based to small and now multi-million-pound businesses, this book outlines Christian Nellemann's trusted methods for achieving success. Filled with practical advice for shaping good working habits, recruiting the right people, and building an effective sales team, it is an essential read for any entrepreneur. It's a book on beating the odds; staying afloat where so many sink and growing where so many shrink. Raw Business contains the raw and unvarnished advice that you need to build and grow a successful company.

Cross-cultural knowledge management, an elusive yet consequential phenomenon, is becoming an increasingly essential factor in organizational practice and policy in the era of globalization. In order to overcome culturally shaped blind spots in conducting research in different settings, this volume highlights how the structuring of roles, interests, and power among different organizational elements, such as teams, departments, and management hierarchies (each comprised of members from different intellectual and professional backgrounds), generates various paradoxes and tensions that bring into play a set of dynamics that have an impact on learning processes. In this context, such questions often arise: How is knowledge shared in the multicultural organization? What problems and issues emerge? How do different mentalities affect people's responses to new knowledge and new ideas? How can knowledge-sharing processes be improved? Under which conditions do ideas generated by units or groups of different cultural traditions have a chance of being heard and implemented? Such questions translate into an investigation of potential managerial dilemmas that occur when different but equally valid choices create tensions in decision making. The authors draw from experiences working with a wide variety of organizations, and insights from such fields as sociology and psychology, to shed new light on the dynamics of knowledge management in the multicultural enterprise. In so doing, they help to identify both obstacles to successful communication and opportunities to inspire creativity and foster collaboration. The authors note that in order to enable organizations to transfer knowledge effectively, mechanisms for dispute settlement, mediation of cultural conflict, and enforcing agreements need to be in place.

The study of individual agency, innovation and entrepreneurship is currently experiencing a new birth in management and organization research. As a matter of fact, the dynamics of institutional entrepreneurship, of path creation and disruptive change, have reached the general discourse on organization and management. While this is certainly welcome, one runs the danger of overlooking the power of self-reinforcing processes in and among organizations. Such dynamics run, to a large extent, beyond the control and attention of individuals and organizations and may thus constitute tenacious limits to the innovative endeavors aforementioned. This volume is dedicated to the theoretical and empirical study of self-reinforcements and decidedly redirects attention to these processes, including: escalating commitment, organizational imprinting and path dependence, and sheds light on the genesis and rise of their pervasive influence. It includes a selection of papers, most of which have were presented and discussed at the sub-theme on "Self-reinforcing organizational processes" of the 27th EGOS Colloquium held in 2011 in Gothenburg, Sweden.

This guide for aspiring entrepreneurs provides expert advice on every aspect of launching a new business. It is designed to be of particular value for academics wishing to exploit the commercial value of a new technology or business solution. Inspiring and readable, it shows how to evaluate the strength of a business idea, how to protect inventions, reviews legal steps and responsibilities, shows how to position products in the market, how to create a business plan and raise initial capital. Case studies, exercises and tips demystify the process of starting a business, build confidence and greatly increase the chances of success.

"I believe each of us was born with the power to choose the path our life will take." Author Alexzandra de la Iglesia has uncovered empowering truths and profound insights that will show you how to create the life you have only dreamed of. She has gathered this life changing knowledge into a practical and insightful book that she is sharing with the world. Choosing Your Destiny is a start-to-success guide filled with contemporary insights and examples for taking control of your life, creating personal financial security, and finding your pathway to the life of your dreams. No matter how difficult your current situation may be, hope and opportunity await you. Choosing Your Destiny was written specifically with our current global economy, political unrest and its impact on each of us in mind. As you move through these pages and apply these simple steps, your life as you know it will be changed forever.

Conceptualized and put into practice by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient Dr. Muhammad Yunus, social businesses work to address social ills such as poverty, lack of health care, gaps in education and environmental challenges. This book explores the ideation, practice and evaluation of the concept of social business. Not just theoretical foundations but several case studies of social businesses around the world and state-of-the-art assessment of the issues that arise in the planning, marketing and evaluation of social businesses, are featured in this book.

This cutting-edge collection of articles, presented by the California Institute for Social Business (CISB) in collaboration with Professor Yunus, is one of the first comprehensive collections of theory and research on the emerging field of social business. The diverse group of authors come from around the world and from various disciplinary backgrounds, representing the leading academic experts on social business phenomena.

This book explores new perspectives on how to improve the chances of success regarding capacity building in developing and emerging countries. Drawing on lessons learned in the course of six decades of capacity building research and practice, it identifies the required conditions for the success of capacity building efforts, and suggests that a radical change in mindset has become a critical aspect in developing countries. In addition, the book discusses capacity building in connection with entrepreneurship (especially female entrepreneurship), transnational diaspora remittances, and combating corruption, which it considers to be essential drivers of sustainable development in developing and emerging countries. The book's contributing authors represent the leading minds in capacity building research and practice, and include researchers from prestigious universities in North America, Europe and Africa, as well as international development experts from institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, African Development Bank, and African Capacity Building Foundation. All authors have considerable expertise regarding capacity building issues, and represent 26 emerging and developing countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Caribbean Islands, North America and Europe.

This book represents a comprehensive state-of-the-art picture of entrepreneurship and small business management issues in the Balkans region. It provides major theoretical and empirical evidence that offers a brighter view of these fields and aims to open up opportunities for greater dialogue in public policy. The readers would be able to enhance their knowledge on small businesses and innovation issues in the Balkans. An outcome of a long lasting endeavour, this book includes contributions of highly reputed authors and experts from the Balkans' countries. Features forewords by two well-known personalities of this field, Leo Paul Dana and Alain Fayolle.

This book makes original contributions to the literature on clusters, human capital, and regional development by focusing on the link between entrepreneurship and economic growth, aiming for a better understanding of the dynamics of growth determined by the entrepreneur's action in the regional space. The focus is therefore on critical reflection and rethinking the articulation between three levels of analysis of economic systems, namely entrepreneurship, human capital and regional development, which have not so far been perfectly articulated in the literature of reference on endogenous growth. Although there has been significant research so far into the success and failure of clusters, the implications of these multiple research efforts fail to provide political decision-makers and company managers with critical information about which mechanisms lie behind cluster success and also about how clusters survive and prosper. The innovative approaches presented in this book on entrepreneurship, human capital mobility and regional development have considerable potential to create new and original implications for decision-makers and managers. In terms of value added, this book contributes to the literature by seeking answers to the following questions: (i) Is the growth and success of clusters over time due to concentration and transmission of business competences through spin-offs located in a given regional space? (ii) Does increased density of job options outside the workplace contribute to increased mobility of human capital between firms located within clusters, and so improve coordination in the local labor market? (iii) Do spin-offs benefit from hiring workers from successful incumbents, inasmuch as those workers are expected to perform better than other workers from different origins? Integrating theoretical frameworks, empirical research, and regional case studies (from Portugal, Spain, Norway and Turkey), the editors and contributors demonstrate that the regional dynamics of industry growth are strongly influenced by the mobility of employees towards new firms.

In recent years, social innovation has experienced a steep career. Numerous national governments and large organisations like the OECD, the European Commission and UNESCO have adopted the term. Social innovation basically means that people adopt new social practices in order to meet social needs in a different or more effective way. Prominent examples of the past are the Red Cross and the social welfare state or, at present, the internet 2.0 transforming our communication and cooperation schemes, requiring new management concepts, even empowering social revolutions. The traditional concept of innovation as successful new technological products needs fundamental rethinking in a society marked by knowledge and services, leading to a new and enriched paradigm of innovation. There is multiple evidence that social innovation will become of growing importance not only concerning social integration, equal opportunities and dealing with the greenhouse effects but also with regard to preserving and expanding the innovative capacity of companies and societies. While political authorities stress the social facets of social innovation, this book also encompasses its societal and systemic dimensions, collecting the scientific expertise of renowned experts and scholars from all over the world. Based on the contributions of the first world-wide science convention on social innovation from September 2011 in Vienna, the book provides an overview of scientific approaches to this still relatively new field. Forewords by Agnes HUBERT (Member of theBureau of European Policy Advisers (BEPA) of the European Commission) and Antonella Noya (Senior Policy Analyst at OECD, manager of the OECD LEED Forum on Social Innovations)

An exploration of the interplay between social responsibility, entrepreneurship and the common good. A plethora of books deal with corporate social responsibility alone, social entrepreneurship alone or to a lessen extent with the concept of common good. However no other book has developed an interdisciplinary reflection to analyze the dynamics between these three concepts. Authors from all around the world have contributed to this analysis which is organized in four sections: business and the common good; educating responsible entrepreneurs; corporate social responsibility (CSR) challenges and the common good; and CSR and entrepreneurship in emerging economies.

Innopreneur: 101 Chronicles on How Circumstance, Preparation and Brilliance Advance Innovation is a collection of short and inspirational views from multinational executives, political leaders, renowned professors and in-the-trenches professionals on what it takes to become a successful innovator in daily life. Whether an experienced entrepreneur, a seasoned marketing or R&D manager, or one small person with a big idea and the know-how to bring it to market, you'll gain insight into what it takes to create something sustainable with long-term demand. What does it really take to deliver new products and services? These 101 articles will inform and inspire the reflection, action and reassessment at the heart of effective innovation.

This book focuses on the role of subsistence entrepreneurs in creating social and sustainable business opportunities on the global marketplace. Subsistence entrepreneurs use scarce resources to create new business opportunities, often in developing or emerging economies. In addition, subsistence entrepreneurship is increasingly being used as a way to facilitate market entry for small and medium-sized business enterprises that focus on collaborative innovation. The interdisciplinary contributions gathered here will expand readers' understanding of the nature and characteristics of subsistence entrepreneurs, as well as the challenges they face. The central connection between subsistence, sustainability and social entrepreneurship is also explored.

The book introduces the concept of 'smart technologies', especially 'Internet of Things' (IoT), and elaborates upon various constituent technologies, their evolution and their applications to various challenging problems in society. It then presents research papers and case studies based upon inception, application and implementation of IoT-based smart technologies for various application areas from some of the most technologically conservative domains like agriculture and farming to the most advanced areas such as automobiles, financial transactions and industrial applications. The book contents is thus applicable not only to academic researcher, but also to interested readers from industries and corporates, and those involved in policy making. Excerpt from the Foreword (read the complete text on Springerlink): "This book contains besides the two introductory chapters, written by the project leaders from Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore, and TU Clausthal (TUC), Germany, the different areas of research work done within the INGPAR (Indo-German Partnership in Advanced Research, founded by DAAD in Germany and UGC in India) project so far by the Indian and German young researchers. It offers new perspectives and documents important progress in smart technologies. I can say without reservation that this book and, more specifically, the method it espouses will change fundamental ideas for cutting-edge innovation and disruption in the smart technology area." - Prof. Dr. Thomas Hanschke, President, TU Clausthal, Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Germany

Whether you are thinking about becoming an independent retailer or are already running your own business, there are some tricks you need to know.

Big retailers like Macy's and Bloomingdale's use tricks of the trade to boost productivity, sales, and profits. You can learn and use these techniques to compete with them and to maximize your store's sales and profits.

Joanna Bradshaw, who has served at the highest executive levels with several of America's best known and most successful retailers, and has also enjoyed a career as an independent retailing entrepreneur, explains the challenges you will face as a shopkeeper today. She walks you through the process of creating the proper foundation for your store and helps you master invaluable skills for your success. You'll learn how to

- create a successful business plan;- develop and convey a mission statement;- harness your strengths to achieve a competitive advantage;- refine and differentiate your products and store; and- use innovative cost-effective ways to promote your business.

This easy-to-understand guide is filled with practical information and keen insights distilled from decades of experience in all types of retail venues: department stores, specialty stores, outlets, and big-box retailers--as well as with start-ups, turnarounds, and liquidations. Get the tools you need to "Be a Millionaire Shopkeeper."

Miguel-Angel Galindo Martin, Joaquin Guzman Cuevas and Domingo Ribeiro Soriano University of Castilla-La Mancha, Albacete, Spain University of Sevilla, Sevilla, Spain University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain The economic growth and the progress of the nations have been two issues that have worried to the economists during centuries. The classical eco- mics books have developed different theories and considered several f- tors that could explain those processes. Unfortunately, a single answer has not been obtained and nowadays economists try also to achieve a response to the mechanism of economic growth. Economic growth has been considered as one of the most relevant e- nomic policy. As it is well known, the validity of an economic policy is measured in terms of economic growth rate. It is supposed that those countries that obtain a higher economic growth rate are designing more efficient economic policies than those that show lower rates. The main corollary to this hypothesis is that the developing countries must follow and copy the economic policies designed by the developed countries."

For many entrepreneurs there is a mystique about finance -starting, growing and selling new ventures is tough enough. Yet with some focused financial knowledge you can run your company with less cash, grow it more quickly and make more money when it is sold. This book makes the dry world of finance easy to understand and relevant to entrepreneurs.

Despite the accelerating pace of globalization, it is impossible to ignore the marginalization of the developing world, as billions of people continue to slip deeper into poverty. While many theories, policies, and practices have been proposed to help redress the disparities between the "haves" and the "have-nots," only recently have proponents of sustainable economic development and entrepreneurship discovered each other. In this provocative and timely book, A. Coskun Samli fills the gap by making the connections explicit and arguing that entrepreneurship may be the only hope for countries that have fallen into the trap of relying on foreign aid and bowing to the pressures of multinational conglomerates driven by short-term profit-maximizing goals. Samli builds the case that some cultures are more entrepreneurial than others, and demonstrates the importance of creating the right conditions, infrastructure, policies, and educational systems that inspire and support new business creation.

The Entrepreneurial Rise in Southeast Asia examines the start-up scene environments in Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia. The contributors to this volume explore government strategies to support start-up communities, local challenges, and unique strengths of each country. They answer key questions framing policy and strategic decision-making at the firm, industry, national, and regional levels, such as: How does technological advance occur, and what are the process and institutions involved? Which cultural characteristics serve to promote or impede innovation? And, in what ways is wealth distributed or concentrated?

Interest in and attention to entrepreneurship has exploded in recent years. Nevertheless, much of the research and scholarship in entrepreneurship has remained elusive to academics, policymakers and other researchers, in large part because the field is informed by a broad spectrum of disciplines, including management, finance, economics, policy, sociology, and psychology, often pursued in isolation from each other. Since its original publication in 2003, the Handbook of Entrepreneurship Research has served as the definitive resource in the field, bringing together contributions from leading scholars in these disciplines to present a holistic, multi-dimensional approach. This new edition, fully revised and updated, and including several new chapters, covers all of the primary topics in entrepreneurship, including entrepreneurial behavior, risk and opportunity recognition, equity financing, business culture and strategy, innovation, and the impact of entrepreneurship on economic growth and development. Featuring an integrative introduction, extensive literature reviews and reference lists, the Handbook will continue to serve as a roadmap to the rapidly evolving and dynamic field of entrepreneurship.