Chapter 8 – Strategic Entrepreneurship However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results. – Winston Churchill Strategy is about making choices, trade-offs; it’s about deliberately choosing to be different. – Michael Porter All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved. – Sun Tzu   Learning Objectives After completing this chapter you will… Read More »Strategic Entrepreneurship

Chapter 7 – Business Set-Up, Start-Up, and Growth Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. – Mark Twain This defines entrepreneur and entrepreneurship—the entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits… Read More »Business Set-Up, Start-Up, and Growth

Chapter 6 – Financing Entrepreneurship Money is like gasoline during a road trip. You don’t want to run out of gas on your trip, but you’re not doing a tour of gas stations. – Tim O’Reilly, founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media Chase the vision, not the money; the money will end up following you. – Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos   Learning Objectives After completing this chapter you will… Read More »Financing Entrepreneurship

Chapter 5 – Business Planning Business planning is an important precursor to action in new ventures. By helping firm founders to make decisions, to balance resource supply and demand, and to turn abstract goals into concrete operational steps, business planning reduces the likelihood of venture disbanding and accelerates product development and venture organizing activity. – Delmar and Shane (2003, p. 1165) We always plan too much and always think too… Read More »Business Planning

Chapter 4 – Business Models A startup is a temporary organization in search of a scalable, repeatable, profitable business model. – Blank and Dorf (2012, p. xvii) Today countless innovative business models are emerging. Entirely new industries are forming as old ones crumble. Upstarts are challenging the old guard, some of whom are struggling feverishly to reinvent themselves. How do you image your organization’s business model might look two, five,… Read More »Business Models

Chapter 3 – Evaluating Entrepreneurial Opportunities Since idea generation and screening are relatively less costly stages in the new product development process (in terms of investment in funds, time, personnel, and escalation of commitment), it makes sense to manage the process in the most efficient and effective manner for the organization. – Rochford (1991, p. 287) The most serious mistakes are not being made as a result of wrong answers.… Read More »Evaluating Entrepreneurial Opportunities

Chapter 2 – Opportunity Recognition and Design Thinking Entrepreneurs see ways to put resources and information together in new combinations. They not only see the system as it is, but as it might be. They have a knack for looking at the usual and seeing the unusual, at the ordinary and seeing the extraordinary. Consequently, they can spot opportunities that turn the commonplace into the unique and unexpected. – Mitton… Read More »Opportunity Recognition and Design Thinking

Chapter 1 – Introduction to Entrepreneurship Whilst there is no universally accepted definition of entrepreneurship, it is fair to say that it is multi-dimensional. It involves analyzing people and their actions together with the ways in which they interact with their environments, be these social, economic, or political, and the institutional, policy, and legal frameworks that help define and legitimize human activities. – Blackburn (2011, p. xiii) Entrepreneurship involves such… Read More »Introduction to Entrepreneurship

Main Body Chapter 1 – Introduction to Entrepreneurship Chapter 2 – Opportunity Recognition and Design Thinking Chapter 3 – Evaluating Entrepreneurial Opportunities Chapter 4 – Business Models Chapter 5 – Business Planning Chapter 6 – Financing Entrepreneurship Chapter 7 – Business Set-Up, Start-Up, and Growth Chapter 8 – Strategic Entrepreneurship Chapter 9 – Innovation and Entrepreneurship Chapter 10 – The Entrepreneurial Environment

You figure your product should be just as appealing to Asian Americans, Hispanics and African Americans as it is to mainstream customers. Yet few people from these ethnic groups walk through your doors. Bottom line: You’re missing out on business that could amount to impressive numbers. Research your target market Multicultural marketing will pay off faster if you recognize that the ethnic group you’re targeting isn’t monolithic. For instance, you… Read More »Multicultural Marketing