International Entrepreneurship and Growth

Globalization allows not only the international expansion of multi-national companies (MNCs) but also the growing success of early internationalizing firms, who go global and succeed in multiple foreign markets at birth or early in their operation as part of their early growth strategy. This chapter focuses on these early internationalising firms and will help you understand how these firms excel with their performance in competitive global markets. You should then be able to: Understand the globalization influences, the emergence of early internationalized firms; Understand and explain the theoretical foundation of international entrepreneurship; Identify different motivations for international entrepreneurs; Examine the characteristics and traits of an international entrepreneur; Build international entrepreneurial capabilities for starting and growing an international venture.

Enterprise Policy

Over the last 30 years, the importance of entrepreneurship to employment, innovation, productivity and income growth has led to an interest in enterprise policy (Shane, 2008; Blackburn and Smallbone, 2008). Enterprise policies have been seen to encourage economic growth, create jobs and generate economic development (Audretsch and Beckmann, 2007), with the aim of meeting economic and social challenges (Wright et al., 2015). Acknowledging the importance of entrepreneurs and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) allows an understanding of why so much attention is being paid to enterprise policy. This chapter answers the following fundamental questions in order to define, understand and review enterprise policy: What is enterprise policy? What is the economic rationale for undertaking enterprise policy? Why has enterprise policy become so important? What are the main instruments of enterprise policy?

Entrepreneurial Leadership

The study of leadership has certainly come a long way since Thomas Carlyle wrote about heroes and hero worship in 1841 (Bryman, 2011). From the organizational perspective, the most significant role of a leader is to influence and provide direction to their followers and provide them with the much needed support for its success (Wood, 2009). Conversely, an ineffective leader does the adverse and can, in fact, detract from organizational goal accomplishment. Leadership has been defined from various viewpoints and each definition allows exploring the concept from a wider and diverse angle. Furthermore, over time, scholars have proposed many different styles of leadership, interestingly; yet, there is no particular style of leadership that can be considered universal. This chapter concentrates on leadership styles and theories and begins by defining leadership. It also incorporates entrepreneurial leadership (EL) as EL exists at the intersection of entrepreneurship and leadership; we take a look at the leading scholar Gupta’s definition of EL (Gupta et al. 2004).

Economic Theories of Entrepreneurship

What is entrepreneurship? Since the turn of the century, there has been increased global interest in entrepreneurship both by individual theorists and by institutions. This is significant because over the last quarter of a century there has been a remarkable renaissance in terms of the recognition of small firms’ “centrality as a necessary competitive instrument in the development of a modern, vibrant and progressive economy” (Beaver and Prince, 2004, p. 34). The economics literature acknowledges the central role of entrepreneurs in economic development, the creation of wealth and evolutionary change. In the United Kingdom alone, over 5.2 million businesses are operating as of 2015; of those, 99% are SMEs, accounting for 14.5 million people in employed positions (Federation of Small Business, 2015). The literature suggests that it is entrepreneurs who are the driving force of such a revolution, in the form of an economic trend that is transforming and in some cases renewing economies worldwide, contributing not only to employment but also to economic, social and political stability. Therefore, it is vital to develop an understanding of the complex field of entrepreneurship by drawing on the early entrepreneurship literature, and by evaluating and understanding the wider contributions to the now-established distinctive economic theories of the entrepreneur.

Corporate Entrepreneurship

Corporations cannot be static – they must continually adapt and redefine themselves as the development and enhancement of new products, services, processes and technologies are occurring at a phenomenal speed. In the long term, for corporations to remain competitive, corporate entrepreneurship is one of the ways forward. This chapter concentrates on establishing an understanding of corporate entrepreneurship and the approaches corporations can use as pathways to becoming sustainable and successful organizations.

Understanding Entrepreneurship An Introduction

The idea of ‘enterprise’ has entered the lexicon of economic development tools, active labour market policies, and employability skills for graduates, amongst other areas of public and private life in recent years. A quick look at the literature, however, shows a much narrower application of the term even as late as the 1980s and 1990s, when ‘multinational enterprises’ was the dominant use of ‘enterprise’ in business and economics texts. ‘Entrepreneurship’ and ‘entrepreneur’ have longer histories but these have tended also to accrue new powers as economies have restructured and developed in new ways. As with other sub-disciplines, though enterprise and entrepreneurship have spread gradually beyond their traditional social cores, their study, application and analysis have evolved over time to embrace a wide range of strategic, social, political and economic areas. This chapter introduces the concept of ‘entrepreneurship’ and offers a launching platform for the remainder of the book.

Diversity in Entrepreneurship

Diversity refers to groups of individuals of varied race, culture, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, social background, age, disability, political beliefs and other traits. In theory, diversity within the global population should be reflected in entrepreneurial activity, yet entrepreneurship is relatively homogenous. Research has shown that diversity affects entrepreneurship (Audretsch et al., 2008). Understanding diversity further allows us to recognize the motivations and challenges affecting entrepreneurs. Moreover, as we grow a new generation of entrepreneurs, we must identify and break down barriers to support them in their journey towards success. Increased understanding of diversity is not only of value to entrepreneurs, but also to educators, researchers and policymakers.

Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneuriship

Over the past few years the relationship between creativity and economic development has received increasing interest from a number of different fields of study, in parallel with increasing recognition of the role and importance of creative activities. Since the 1990s, creativity and innovation have achieved acceptance in the fields of business and management in the form of acknowledgement that new markets, or even market growth, may only be attained via creative and innovative solutions. Studies of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship and growth have become the prime catalysts for the identification and promotion of innovative knowledge industries, whose economic importance has become increasingly significant. Thus, in order to fully appreciate the role of creativity and innovation, it is first vital to understand the nature of entrepreneurship and, specifically, the creativity required to identify and exploit opportunities, and to acquire the necessary resources.

Social Entrepreneurship

This chapter will consider social entrepreneurship and will focus on the similarities and differences between social entrepreneurship and such commercial activities as corporate social responsibility (CSR). It will also spotlight some of the challenges facing academics and practitioners alike when attempting to define SE.