Advancing European Entrepreneurship Research

The objective with the Strategic Interest Group in Entrepreneurship (SIG Entrepreneurship) of the European Academy of Management (EURAM) is to be the leading research community for engaged entrepreneurship scholars in Europe. The SIG Entrepreneurship aims at promoting research and networking interests for individuals and research groups focused on entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial styles of management. This is done by providing a wide-ranging, engaged and internationally-focused forum to discuss and develop research and practice in the field. We put a distinct focus on the key European feature – ‘context matter’ – why we try in all activities to promote and stimulate what ‘European’ might mean in any given context. It means different things in different contexts – and that is the whole point – and thereby the key strength of the European takes on the matter as we see it. This is our idea of the European perspective on entrepreneurship. The tradition of European scholars on entrepreneurship and SMEs system has been consolidated during the last three decades and an increasingly distinct European school of thought has emerged as a consequence. This development provides a solid base for the future development of the field where Europe and its entrepreneurship scholars will play an increasingly prominent role. With this concern, this book has been managed, gathering the best contributions of our annual meeting re-edited and improved. The central theme is presenting entrepreneurship understood as a working attitude, a mode of thinking, a concrete everyday practice and increasingly an identity marker for ways of being and living within liquid modernity. Entrepreneurship is nowadays a broadly endorsed and accepted signifier for forms of organizing that targets human, organizational and economic renewal and growth.

The tradition of European scholars on entrepreneurship has been consolidated during the last three decades and an increasingly distinct European school of thought has emerged as a consequence. This development provides as solid base for the future development of the field where Europe and its entrepreneurship scholars will play an increasingly prominent role in the development of the field. The distinct focus of the book is key European features – ‘contexts matter’ – to promote and stimulate what ‘European’ might mean in any given context. The book valorizes different contexts and key strengths of the European perspective.

Entrepreneurial Business and Society analyses contemporary research in the field of entrepreneurship and small business and explores the interplay between the entrepreneur, the entrepreneurial firm and society. The contributors highlight that entrepreneurship may also contribute to social change and that welfare and success could be measured in terms of their effect on society. Topics explored throughout the volume are the promotion of entrepreneurial businesses, entrepreneurial people and entrepreneurial sectors. The book will prove invaluable for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students of entrepreneurship and small business. Entrepreneurship and small business researchers as well as policy makers will also find plenty of relevant information in this important resource.

This insightful book examines the need to bridge the gap between scientific rigour in entrepreneurship research and its practical relevance to external stakeholders, and demonstrates clearly how this can be achieved in practice. Featuring cutting-edge research, Rigour and Relevance in Entrepreneurship Research, Resources and Outcomes presents and evaluates current critical approaches in the field, analysing their theoretical value and their relevance to policy and practice.

This insightful book presents leading-edge European research on entrepreneurial processes in a changing global world. The contributors take a closer look at what constitutes entrepreneurial processes; how entrepreneurs develop their businesses and access critical resources in times of crisis; and which roles knowledge and innovation play in continuous venture development. The chapters included in this volume give a flavour of the themes and approaches featuring in contemporary entrepreneurship and small business research in Europe. Entrepreneurial Processes in a Changing Economy will prove invaluable for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students of entrepreneurship and small business. Entrepreneurship and small business researchers and policy makers will also find plenty of relevant information in this important resource.

This book presents a selection of the best papers from the second annual Interdisciplinary European Conference on Entrepreneurship Research (IECER), held at the University of Regensburg in February 2004. The papers in this book have several overarching themes. One theme concerns the success factors that affect high-growth entrepreneurial firms in general. A second group of papers looks at specific factors influencing entrepreneurial firms in particular countries, and another set focuses on new ventures in different industrial settings. A final group of papers focuses on the entrepreneur and his/her impact on firm development.

The volume provides rich accounts on the enforcement of core issues but also on theoretical and methodological advances of the frontier of the research field. Areas of study that are meritoriously included are business closure and characteristics of the present knowledge economy. New sectors of the research frontier include societal entrepreneurship and the diversity of entrepreneurship in emergent market economies as well as methodologies such as discourse analysis and narrative approaches. This anthology certainly contributes to the crafting of a European identity in the field of entrepreneurship research. Bengt Johannisson, Växjö University and Jönköping University, Sweden Many of the world s leading experts on entrepreneurship and economic growth explore important issues that impact new venture creation; the influences of the knowledge-based economy on economic development; factors that govern exit from entrepreneurship, and a variety of critical social influences on entrepreneurship and economic development. Like the previous three volumes in this series from the European Council for Small Business and Entrepreneurship, this is a significant contribution to entrepreneurship scholarship that has important insights for scholars and public policy-makers. William B. Gartner, Clemson University, US This state-of-the-art book provides a window on contemporary European entrepreneurship and small business research. The papers selected demonstrate the applied nature of entrepreneurship research as well as the various contributions that entrepreneurship can make to local, regional and national development. Written by international experts, the book reveals the heterogeneity of entrepreneurship in terms of substantive content and the methodologies employed. With both quantitative and qualitative approaches well represented, Entrepreneurship and Growth in Local, Regional and National Economies covers topics such as regional perspectives on entrepreneurship, new venture creation and growth, business exits, knowledge-based entrepreneurship and social inclusion. Furnishing the reader with rich and leading entrepreneurship research, this book will be invaluable for entrepreneurship and small business researchers as well as postgraduate and advanced undergraduate students of entrepreneurship. Policy makers will also find much of great interest to them.

This timely book presents contemporary research on the key role of entrepreneurship in firm growth and development strategies. The contributors reveal that a high level of entrepreneurial activity contributes to economic growth, innovative activities, competition, job creation and local development. The contents of the book, although varied in terms of the topics covered and research methods used, demonstrate the role of entrepreneurship in relation to growth and economic development in a variety of different contexts. Drawing together leading-edge European research, the expert contributors analyse a number of different issues, such as whether firm growth and performance are different concepts in entrepreneurship studies, growth strategies of IT firms, the start-up funding process, cross-border co-operation between enterprises and SME competitiveness. Entrepreneurship, Growth and Economic Development will appeal to researchers and students of entrepreneurship and small business. Policy-makers will also find this book a source of inspiration.