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The Illusions of Entrepreneurship: The Costly Myths That Entrepreneurs, Investors, and Policy Makers Live by
 
 

The Illusions of Entrepreneurship: The Costly Myths That Entrepreneurs, Investors, and Policy Makers Live by (Hardcover)

by SA Shane (Author)
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Customers buy this book with Founders at Work : Stories of Startups' Early Days: Stories of Startups' Early Days (Recipes: a Problem-Solution Ap) by Jessica Livingston

The Illusions of Entrepreneurship: The Costly Myths That Entrepreneurs, Investors, and Policy Makers Live by + Founders at Work : Stories of Startups' Early Days: Stories of Startups' Early Days (Recipes: a Problem-Solution Ap)
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Product details

  • Hardcover: 224 pages
  • Publisher: Yale University Press (28 Feb 2008)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0300113315
  • ISBN-13: 978-0300113310
  • Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.2 x 2.3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 219,869 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Review
"Business scholar Scott Shane debunks popular theories with research-based answers to questions such as why people start businesses, which industries are most popular for startups and what are the most common characteristics of the typical entrepreneur." -- Mark Henricks "Entrepreneur Magazine"

Product Description
There are far more entrepreneurs than most people realize. But the failure rate of new businesses is disappointingly high, and the economic impact of most of them disappointingly low, suggesting that enthusiastic would-be entrepreneurs and their investors all too often operate under a false set of assumptions. This book shows that the reality of entrepreneurship is decidedly different from the myths that have come to surround it. Scott Shane, a leading expert in entrepreneurial activity in the United States and other countries, draws on the data from extensive research to provide accurate, useful information about who becomes an entrepreneur and why, how businesses are started, which factors lead to success, and which predict a likely failure. "The Illusions of Entrepreneurship" is an essential resource for everyone who has dreamed of starting a new business, for investors in start-ups, for policy makers attempting to facilitate the formation and survival of new businesses, and for researchers interested in the economic impact of entrepreneurial activity. Scott Shane offers research-based answers to these questions and many others: Why do people start businesses? What industries are popular for start-ups? How many jobs do new businesses create? How do entrepreneurs finance their start-ups? What makes some locations and some countries more entrepreneurial than others? What are the characteristics of the typical entrepreneur? How well does the typical start-up perform? What strategies contribute to the survival and profitability of new businesses over time?

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Inside This Book (Learn More)
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars US myths busted, EU applicability, nominal, 31 Mar 2009
Professor Shane, not surprisingly, presents a US version of entrepreneurship as automatically associated with self-employment and new business formation or economic entities in pursuit of personal profit to the exclusion of all others. The more widely accepted EU interpretation is of innovative venturing, entrepreneuring as a pursuit of problem solving and of change and improvements to what already exists, not duplicating it.

I read this text in just a few hours and although I agree with the author that the 'get rich quick' messaging validating entrepreneurship policies and ideology in the US and EU is indeed a myth that needs busting, his insistence that the self employed or those operating any profit making business is entrepreneurship fails to differentiate and determine the vast difference between entrepreneurship and small business ownership. It also disregards the growth in self employment as forced upon many by contract restructuring or their long term employers.

He explicitly dismisses any and all psychological academic research on entrepreneurship in Chapter 3 and yet explains the vast majority of firm founding and self employment motives is in fact (according to his data) a preference not to work for someone else when he states "Most people start businesses simply because they just don't like working for someone else" (p43). Surely this reason is a psychological one?

As a short, sharp shock on why policymakers mistakenly condone and incentivise self centered profiteering in all shapes and forms that are legal, it is effective and hopefully will generate a greater appreciation of the nominal effect new businesses make to western and more developed economies, but his dismissal of those who create new social movements, act creatively, create non-profit enterprises and do in fact have a positive impact on the status quo of the time is its greatest weakness. In short he validates his own delusion by taking this position.

He does explore numerous triggers to new business formation rates and one or two will puzzle policymakers such as high unemployment generates higher start-up rates and that higher education is only helpful at degree level whereas postgraduates (allegedly) don't start their own firms. The GEM data on the UK contradicts this in fact, but as an exercise is exploding commonly held beliefs about wealth and job creation in new and small businesses it is a useful artifact.

For an alternative interpretation of the subjects who should be categorised as entrepreneurs see Hjorth & Steyeart's extensive works.
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