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.

Today we can observe an increasing spatial divide as some large urban regions and many more medium-sized and small regions face growing problems such as decreasing labour demand, increasing unemployment and an ageing population. In view of these trends, this book offers a better understanding of the general characteristics and specific drivers of the geographies of growth. It shows how these may vary in different spatial contexts, how hurdles and barriers to growth in different types of regions can be dealt with, how and to what extent resources in different areas can develop, and how the potential of these resources to stimulate growth can be realized. This book presents a collection of chapters, divided into four main perspectives, that together deal with these issues. The expert contributions provide numerous different perspectives on a new regional divide as well as exploring the inter-regional accessibility to human capital and its affects on productivity on both sides of the border. The book also investigates the speed of convergence and the fact that, when incorporating structural change, it is often quicker at the regional level compared to both the country and industry level. Other topics covered include institutional foundations and their influence on local social acceptance of entrepreneurship, the role of global value chains on bilateral trade and the determinants of cross-border innovation cooperation focusing on partner selection and location. Students, researchers and scholars will find this an important resource that fills numerous knowledge gaps and opens new avenues for research. It will also appeal to consultants, practitioners and planners at the international, regional and local level. Contributors include: C. Alfken, M. Andersson, T. Arvemo, L. Bjerke, A.P. Cornett, N. de Vries, S. Fredina, H. Goldstein, U. Grasjoe, K.E. Heynes, R.E. Hjaltadottir, V. Jienwatcharamongkhol, B. Johansson, M. Jogmark, C. Karlsson, T. Makkonen, A. Naveed, K. Nystroem, J. Parajuli, V. Peer, A. Risselada, V. Schutjens, S. Sedlacek, N.K. Sorensen, T.-A. Stone, S. Tavassol, I. Viklund Ros, P. Warda

How do business leaders think as a result of their national culture? This book provides a discussion and comparative analysis of five major cultures - American, Arab, Chinese, Japanese and Scandinavian - and how they reveal themselves in business practice. The author begins by introducing the concept of culture and why it is important, addressing issues such as values, beliefs and assumptions and the consequences of these. Bjorn Bjerke then goes on to address corporate culture and business strategy as well as some myths associated with national cultures. Looking at the five specific cultures he addresses cultural themes and presents a typified picture of the business leader in each of these. He concludes that there are five different capitalist systems governing these cultures, and that the business leader plays a different role in each. Extending this discussion, the author questions whether the culture-free business leader exists and, if so, what the characteristics of such a person might be. Business Leadership and Culture will enlighten students, scholars and business people about the consequences of culture for international business and management.

Climate Change Temporalities explores how various timescales, timespans, intervals, rhythms, cycles, and changes in acceleration are at play in climate change discourses. It argues that nuanced, detailed, and specific understandings and concepts are required to handle the challenges of a climatically changed world, politically and socially as well as scientifically. Rather than reflecting abstractly on theories of temporality, this edited collection explores a variety of timescales and temporalities from narratives, experience, popular culture, and everyday life in addition to science and history - and the entanglements between them. The chapters are clustered into three main sections, exploring a range of genres, such as questionnaires, interviews, magazines, news media, television series, aquariums, and popular science books to critically examine how and where climate change understandings are formed. The book also includes chapters historising notions of climate and temporality by exploring scientific debates and practices. Climate Change Temporalities will be of great interest to students and scholars of humanistic climate change research, environmental humanities, studies of temporality and historicity, cultural studies, cultural history, and popular culture.

This ultimate guide to one of the world's most beautiful and fascinating island nations is packed with travel tips, cultural and historical facts, and insights from Icelanders into how we can all make our lives a little more Icelandic. Known as 'The Land of Fire and Ice', Iceland is a country of contrasts, from the enormous glaciers to the active volcanoes, the summer midnight sun to the briefest of winter days, the ancient language to the modern technological innovations. This is a nation with a rich and diverse culture as unique as its stunning landscapes. How to Live Icelandic is the ultimate insider's guide to this northerly nation. You may have already tried skyr for breakfast and listened to Sigur Ros on your daily commute, but how much do you know about the real Iceland; the locals' take on this one-of-a-kind island? Icelanders Nina Bjoerk Jonsdottir and Edda Magnus have put together the highlights of Icelandic music, literature, cultural attitudes, food traditions and celebrations so the rest of the world can benefit from the special blend of old Norse wisdom with liberal modern attitudes. This beautiful book is full of inspiration and insight into this progressive and peaceful nation that has freedom, community and equality at its core, revealing why Iceland remains one of the happiest countries in the world. From the How To Live... series of insightful guides to some of the most intriguing cultures and locations on the planet, other books available include How To Live Japanese, How To Live Korean and How to Live North.

This engaging textbook offers a modern perspective on all that is essential to know about entrepreneurship. It will prove required reading for both lecturers and undergraduate and Masters students on upper-level entrepreneurship courses.Bjoern Bjerke covers all kinds of aspects of entrepreneurship including the history of the subject, our modern entrepreneurial society, local community development, entrepreneurship in different national cultures and women as entrepreneurs. He addresses some theoretical developments, and considers a narrow and a broad view of entrepreneurship, rational and natural entrepreneurial start-ups and entrepreneurship in space and place. At the end of every chapter, there are numerous 'Think' questions and a practice case, which may be useful when studying the subject alone or when teaching it. There are online resources for teachers to support the text. Contents: Introduction: A Book About, for or in Entrepreneurship? 1. The History of Entrepreneurship as an Academic Subject 2. Our Society During the Twenty-first Century 3. All These Preneurs 4. Business Entrepreneurship: The Narrow View 5. Business Entrepreneurship: The Broad View 6. Social Entrepreneurship 7. Entrepreneurship and Local Development 8. Start-ups of Entrepreneurial Activities 9. Women as Entrepreneurs 10. Entrepreneurial Activities in Different National Cultures 11. Some Philosophical and Theoretical Foundations References Index

A fabulous typographic exploration of the letter forms and typography of one of Europe's leading design studios. Letters from M/M (Paris) is a comprehensive study of the typefaces produced by Michael Amzalag and Mathias Augustyniak since they founded their influential art and design practice, M/M (Paris). For the first time, ninety of the designers' typefaces are catalogued chronologically in a three-part volume, comprising the history of their development; exclusive type specimens; and detailed illustrations of projects in which they appear. With a foreword by Bjoerk - whose collaboration with M/M spans over two decades - this encyclopaedic volume traces the distinctive and integral nature of type, lettering and signs in the work of M/M, from one-off artistic commissions to fashion branding and their long-lasting collaborations with musicians and theatres. This complete typographic collection is the perfect companion to the two-volume monograph M to M of M/M (Paris), and will appeal not only to graphic designers, historians and students, but to anyone interested in art and visual culture.

Climate Change Temporalities explores how various timescales, timespans, intervals, rhythms, cycles, and changes in acceleration are at play in climate change discourses. It argues that nuanced, detailed, and specific understandings and concepts are required to handle the challenges of a climatically changed world, politically and socially as well as scientifically. Rather than reflecting abstractly on theories of temporality, this edited collection explores a variety of timescales and temporalities from narratives, experience, popular culture, and everyday life in addition to science and history - and the entanglements between them. The chapters are clustered into three main sections, exploring a range of genres, such as questionnaires, interviews, magazines, news media, television series, aquariums, and popular science books to critically examine how and where climate change understandings are formed. The book also includes chapters historising notions of climate and temporality by exploring scientific debates and practices. Climate Change Temporalities will be of great interest to students and scholars of humanistic climate change research, environmental humanities, studies of temporality and historicity, cultural studies, cultural history, and popular culture.

Essays illuminate a wide range of topics from the Middle Ages, from the seals of an empress to priests' wives and the undead. This volume of the Haskins Society Journal demonstrates the Society's continued engagement with historical and interdisciplinary research from the early to the central Middle Ages on a broad range of topics including militarism, piety, the miraculous and the monstrous. Chapters explore material culture through a mythic eleventh-century papal banner and the seals and coins of the Empress Matilda; offer new insights into Carolingian hagiography and into the undead in the Historia rerum Anglicarum. Further chapters feature new evidence on the role of priests' wives, the tensions of multiple lordships, shifting identities in the Irish Sea world, and the didactic use of royal anger. A fresh examination of Aelred of Rievaulx's Relatio de Standaro and a re-assessment of Flemish documentary practice continue the Haskins Society's commitment to primary source analysis. Two essays on the thirteenth century, including links between Crusade spirituality and lay penitential strategies and an investigation into the economic costs of waging war, round out the volume. Contributors: DAN ARMSTRONG, DAVID S. BACHRACH, DANIEL M. BACHRACH, JILLIAN M. BJERKE, HANNAH BOSTON, MARIAH COOPER, FIONA J. GRIFFITHS, JESSE M. HARRINGTON, JEAN-FRANCOIS NIEUS, ALICE RIO, CHARITY URBANSKI, PATRICK WADDEN, MEGHAN WOOLLEY, LU ZUO

This engaging textbook offers a modern perspective on all that is essential to know about entrepreneurship. It will prove required reading for both lecturers and undergraduate and Masters students on upper-level entrepreneurship courses.Bjoern Bjerke covers all kinds of aspects of entrepreneurship including the history of the subject, our modern entrepreneurial society, local community development, entrepreneurship in different national cultures and women as entrepreneurs. He addresses some theoretical developments, and considers a narrow and a broad view of entrepreneurship, rational and natural entrepreneurial start-ups and entrepreneurship in space and place. At the end of every chapter, there are numerous 'Think' questions and a practice case, which may be useful when studying the subject alone or when teaching it. There are online resources for teachers to support the text. Contents: Introduction: A Book About, for or in Entrepreneurship? 1. The History of Entrepreneurship as an Academic Subject 2. Our Society During the Twenty-first Century 3. All These Preneurs 4. Business Entrepreneurship: The Narrow View 5. Business Entrepreneurship: The Broad View 6. Social Entrepreneurship 7. Entrepreneurship and Local Development 8. Start-ups of Entrepreneurial Activities 9. Women as Entrepreneurs 10. Entrepreneurial Activities in Different National Cultures 11. Some Philosophical and Theoretical Foundations References Index

Consumers have, to a large extent, become their own producers; they are more aware of marketing and are active in adding value to the products and experiences they want. By assessing customers as active agents rather than passive consumers, Bjoern Bjerke explores alternative ways of marketing for new businesses and social entrepreneurial ventures. This book first presents the dominant approach to marketing theory used for the last half a century. After that, it presents an alternative approach to marketing theory by emphasizing how new infrastructures and organizations, including online platforms, influence new ways of linking the formal and informal economies together. Building on fundamental theories of science and methodological issues, Bjerke creates useful theoretical conceptions that can develop a greater connection between practice and research. He argues that as entrepreneurial activity is more accessible than ever it needs a fresh approach to include customers as co-creators and co-extractors of market value. An excellent book for exploring alternative marketing, students and researchers in marketing, social entrepreneurship and wider business and management studies will gain a greater understanding of what it means to be a marketer, customer and user.

A timely contribution to social entrepreneurship research from a Scandinavian view. Taking entrepreneurship as creative action in society as a whole, the authors counter widely held perceptions of (social) entrepreneurship: it is not an elite phenomenon but a form of action that we all engage in from time to time; it is not about system-changing disruptions but generally about small but real improvements in everyday life; it is not about autonomous action but about realizing freedom potential in societies where knowledge and learning have become essential for civic action.' - Rafael Ziegler, University of Greifswald, Germany'This book offers an innovative, theory-driven account of social entrepreneurship that is located in new thinking around the constructs of community and 'public' entrepreneurship. Bjerke and Karlsson draw on a wide range of sources to offer useful new insights and analyses of this emerging sector and contribute a variety of useful and challenging new models of the relationship between society, innovation, and politics. All in all, this represents a valuable addition to the growing theoretical literature on social innovation and entrepreneurship.' - Alex Nicholls, University of Oxford, UK This informative book examines some social entrepreneurs in practice in several countries whilst concentrating on entrepreneurs in the third sector. The authors call them citizen entrepreneurs. Such people are not only becoming more common but also more necessary in the world of today. Entrepreneurs are seen as people who aim 'to act as if and make a difference', that is, who act out of the ordinary and come up with noticeable solutions to various problems without being restricted by existing resources or possibilities. This book applies these criteria to citizen entrepreneurs, focusing on public entrepreneurs operating in public places. The authors conduct in-depth case studies to examine these public entrepreneurs thoroughly and offer some theoretical reflections on social entrepreneurship. Students and researchers studying social entrepreneurship will find this book of great interest. Social entrepreneurs and practitioners would also benefit considerably from this enriching resource.

This unique and fascinating book takes a critical look at aspects of the prevalent entrepreneurship discourse and presents several substantive new theories, prescribing what should be abandoned (demobilization) and what should be adopted or given a more central position (mobilization).The contributors contend that entrepreneurship is not only an economic matter; that it is not a predominantly male-gender issue; and that it is not only done by heroes or extraordinary efforts but rather that it is as much a matter of ordinary, routine activities. They conclude that the entrepreneurship literature could greatly benefit from including the concepts of space and place, that resistance to it is an important aspect of its success, and that it is just as much about imitation as about creativity. Finally, they address the issue that what should be demobilized or mobilized in the entrepreneurship discourse might actually be the wrong question, since entrepreneurship is arguably a way of life.At the cutting edge of entrepreneurship research, this thought-provoking book will prove a stimulating read for entrepreneurship academics, students and researchers in the fields of entrepreneurship and business and management.

How do business leaders think as a result of their national culture? This book provides a discussion and comparative analysis of five major cultures - American, Arab, Chinese, Japanese and Scandinavian - and how they reveal themselves in business practice. The author begins by introducing the concept of culture and why it is important, addressing issues such as values, beliefs and assumptions and the consequences of these. Bjorn Bjerke then goes on to address corporate culture and business strategy as well as some myths associated with national cultures. Looking at the five specific cultures he addresses cultural themes and presents a typified picture of the business leader in each of these. He concludes that there are five different capitalist systems governing these cultures, and that the business leader plays a different role in each. Extending this discussion, the author questions whether the culture-free business leader exists and, if so, what the characteristics of such a person might be. Business Leadership and Culture will enlighten students, scholars and business people about the consequences of culture for international business and management.

Citizenship is a core concept for the social sciences, and citizenship is also frequently interpreted, challenged and contested in different political arenas. Shaping Citizenship explores how the concept is debated and contested, defined and redefined, used and constructed by different agents, at different times, and with regard to both theory and practice. The book uses a reflexive and constructivist perspective on the concept of citizenship that draws on the theory and methodology of conceptual history. This approach enables a panorama of politically important readings on citizenship that provide an interdisciplinary perspective and help to transcend narrow and simplified views on citizenship. The three parts of the book focus respectively on theories, debates and practices of citizenship. In the chapters, constructions and struggles related to citizenship are approached by experts from different fields. Thematically the chapters focus on political representation, migration, internationalization, sub-and transnationalization as well as the Europeanisation of citizenship. An indispensable read to scholars and students, Shaping Citizenship presents new ways to study the conceptual changes, struggles and debates related to core dimensions of this ever-evolving concept.

Just as society has realised the value of entrepreneurs, so entrepreneurs are gradually realising the value of strategic marketing. In this book, the authors explain the substantial role of marketing in the success of small firms which have emerged in the new business environment of the past 10 to 15 years. Entrepreneurial marketing is especially important for small, developing firms which have to consider emerging business and market trends, and so a model is presented specifically tailored to the needs of expanding entrepreneurial ventures. The authors also critically analyse the extent to which mainstream marketing and entrepreneurship theory are useful in entrepreneurial marketing. They argue that to be fully effective, marketing must be viewed from a broad perspective and as a value-creating process. In order to understand the dynamic pattern of growth of small entrepreneurial ventures, they emphasise the importance of making a clear distinction between: * managerial growth and entrepreneurial growth * entrepreneurship, management and leadership * transactional marketing, relationship marketing and complex combinations * focal organisations and virtual organisations * explorative learning and exploitative learning * value configurations and value chains. This book will be of immense worth to students, scholars and practitioners of marketing and entrepreneurship, and will contribute to a new dialogue between the two disciplines. It will also be of considerable value to the wider business and management community learning to operate and succeed in the new economic era.

Consumers have, to a large extent, become their own producers; they are more aware of marketing and are active in adding value to the products and experiences they want. By assessing customers as active agents rather than passive consumers, Bjoern Bjerke explores alternative ways of marketing for new businesses and social entrepreneurial ventures. This book first presents the dominant approach to marketing theory used for the last half a century. After that, it presents an alternative approach to marketing theory by emphasizing how new infrastructures and organizations, including online platforms, influence new ways of linking the formal and informal economies together. Building on fundamental theories of science and methodological issues, Bjerke creates useful theoretical conceptions that can develop a greater connection between practice and research. He argues that as entrepreneurial activity is more accessible than ever it needs a fresh approach to include customers as co-creators and co-extractors of market value. An excellent book for exploring alternative marketing, students and researchers in marketing, social entrepreneurship and wider business and management studies will gain a greater understanding of what it means to be a marketer, customer and user.

In 1991, the first issue of Dazed & Confused was released as a single A2 foldout newsprint by a then 20-year-old Jefferson Hack and the photographer Rankin. Now, 30 years later, what began as a print magazine has gone on to provoke a change in consciousness, becoming a vital cultural manifesto for today. Created for an audience that wants to be both informed and inspired to imagine, its radical approach to publishing means that Dazed is still at the forefront of youth culture today. Split into ten chapters taken from the magazine s most memorable cover lines this book explores how these early manifestos reflect the magazine s ethos today. Time-traveling from the 90s to now, a new generation of image makers sit side by side with archival materials to showcase how Dazed has always interpreted celebrity through its own boundary-pushing lens: from Alexander McQueen and David Bowie s first official, recorded conversation and the designer s Fashion-Able? cover, to a rare appearance and guest-edit by Chelsea Manning, to rapper Young Thug shot by Harley Weir.

A compelling account of the establishment of Tanzania's stable and ambitious government in the face of external threats and internal turmoil. In the early 1960s, nationalist politicians established in Tanzania a stable government in the face of external threats and internal turmoil. Paul Bjerk's volume chronicles this history and examines the politics and policies of the nation's first president, Julius Nyerere. One of the great leaders of modern Africa, Nyerere unified the diverse people who became citizens of the new nation and negotiated the tumultuous politics of the Cold War. In an era whenmany postcolonial countries succumbed to corrupt dictatorship or civil war, Nyerere sought principled government. Making difficult choices between democratic and autocratic rule, Nyerere creatively managed the destabilizing forces of decolonization. With extensive archival research and interviews with scores of participants in this history, Bjerk reorients our understanding of the formative years of Tanzanian independence. This study provides a new paradigm for understanding the history of the postcolonial nations that became independent in a global postwar order defined by sovereignty. Paul Bjerk is associate professor of history at Texas Tech University.

25th Anniversary Edition

Linnea has been in Paris. And she has visited the painter Claude Monet's garden She even stood on the same little Japanese bridge that Monet painted so often in his pictures. In Paris, Linnea got to see many of the real paintings.

Now she can understand what it means to be called an Impressionist, and she knows a lot about Monet's life in the pink house where he lived with his eight children.

Twenty-five years after its original publication, this celebration of the wonder of art is available once again in an enlarged keepsake edition. The joy and inspiration Linnea discovers in Monet's garden will be eagerly embraced by a new generation of readers.

"Original and charming."--New Yorker

This book contains papers from the International Conference on Extreme Learning Machine 2021, which was held in virtual on December 15-16, 2021. Extreme learning machines (ELM) aims to enable pervasive learning and pervasive intelligence. As advocated by ELM theories, it is exciting to see the convergence of machine learning and biological learning from the long-term point of view. ELM may be one of the fundamental `learning particles' filling the gaps between machine learning and biological learning (of which activation functions are even unknown). ELM represents a suite of (machine and biological) learning techniques in which hidden neurons need not be tuned: inherited from their ancestors or randomly generated. ELM learning theories show that effective learning algorithms can be derived based on randomly generated hidden neurons (biological neurons, artificial neurons, wavelets, Fourier series, etc.) as long as they are nonlinear piecewise continuous, independent of training data and application environments. Increasingly, evidence from neuroscience suggests that similar principles apply in biological learning systems. ELM theories and algorithms argue that "random hidden neurons" capture an essential aspect of biological learning mechanisms as well as the intuitive sense that the efficiency of biological learning need not rely on computing power of neurons. ELM theories thus hint at possible reasons why the brain is more intelligent and effective than current computers. This conference provides a forum for academics, researchers, and engineers to share and exchange R&D experience on both theoretical studies and practical applications of the ELM technique and brain learning. This book covers theories, algorithms, and applications of ELM. It gives readers a glance of the most recent advances of ELM.

This book is devoted to problems of stochastic control and stopping that are time inconsistent in the sense that they do not admit a Bellman optimality principle. These problems are cast in a game-theoretic framework, with the focus on subgame-perfect Nash equilibrium strategies. The general theory is illustrated with a number of finance applications.In dynamic choice problems, time inconsistency is the rule rather than the exception. Indeed, as Robert H. Strotz pointed out in his seminal 1955 paper, relaxing the widely used ad hoc assumption of exponential discounting gives rise to time inconsistency. Other famous examples of time inconsistency include mean-variance portfolio choice and prospect theory in a dynamic context. For such models, the very concept of optimality becomes problematic, as the decision maker's preferences change over time in a temporally inconsistent way. In this book, a time-inconsistent problem is viewed as a non-cooperative game between the agent's current and future selves, with the objective of finding intrapersonal equilibria in the game-theoretic sense. A range of finance applications are provided, including problems with non-exponential discounting, mean-variance objective, time-inconsistent linear quadratic regulator, probability distortion, and market equilibrium with time-inconsistent preferences. Time-Inconsistent Control Theory with Finance Applications offers the first comprehensive treatment of time-inconsistent control and stopping problems, in both continuous and discrete time, and in the context of finance applications. Intended for researchers and graduate students in the fields of finance and economics, it includes a review of the standard time-consistent results, bibliographical notes, as well as detailed examples showcasing time inconsistency problems. For the reader unacquainted with standard arbitrage theory, an appendix provides a toolbox of material needed for the book.

Rudolf Kjellen, regularly referred to as "the father of geopolitics," developed in the first decade of the twentieth century an analytical model for calculating the capabilities of great-power states and promoting their interests in the international arena. It was an ambitious intellectual project that sought to bring politics into the sphere of social science. Bringing together experts on Kjellen from across the disciplines, Territory, State and Nation explores the century-long international impact, analytical model, and historical theories of a figure immensely influential in his time who is curiously little-known today.

The five Nordic countries, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, are well-known for their extensive welfare system and gender equality which provides both parents with opportunities to earn and care for their children. In this topical book, expert scholars from the Nordic countries, as well as UK and the US, demonstrate how modern fatherhood is supported in the Nordic setting through family and social policies, and how these contribute to shaping and influencing the images, roles and practices of fathers in a diversity of family settings and variations of fatherhoods. This comprehensive volume will have wide international appeal for those who look to Nordic countries and their success in creating gender equal societies.

The five Nordic countries, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, are well-known for their extensive welfare system and gender equality which provides both parents with opportunities to earn and care for their children. In this topical book, expert scholars from the Nordic countries, as well as UK and the US, demonstrate how modern fatherhood is supported in the Nordic setting through family and social policies, and how these contribute to shaping and influencing the images, roles and practices of fathers in a diversity of family settings and variations of fatherhoods. This comprehensive volume will have wide international appeal for those who look to Nordic countries and their success in creating gender equal societies.