Much research in entrepreneurship presents results as if they are universally and timelessly valid. Entrepreneurship in Context takes the opposite tack - it studies entrepreneurship as a context bound phenomenon. For entrepreneurship, the importance of context goes beyond gaining understanding and avoiding mistakes. The reciprocal influence exercised by the entrepreneurial venture and its corresponding context is at the very heart of the entrepreneur as an agent of change. The book addresses context in a narrow sense, i.e. a person's life situation and local, situational characteristics. It also deals with wider contexts such as social, industry, cultural, ethnic, sustainability-related, institutional, and historical contexts. The book studies the interconnectedness of all these various sub-contexts. It zooms in on the actions that entrepreneurs take to involve, engage, and influence their context and shows the changing and dynamic nature of context. It provides lessons for entrepreneurs about which contextual elements should be prioritized, engaged and sought out.

About the Author
Marco van Gelderen is a senior lecturer at Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand, and business psychologist specializing in entrepreneurship. In recent years, Marco started to focus his research as well as his teaching activities on individual-level enterprising competences. Enno Masurel is Professor in Sustainable Entrepreneurship and the director of the Amsterdam Center for Entrepeneurship at VU, VU University Amsterdam. His main research focus is entrepreneurship and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with special reference to innovation.

Reviews

"While a plethora of books have been written on entrepreneurship, they typically consider the perspective of the entrepreneur or the entrepreneurial firm. In this important new book, the entrepreneurial context is the focal point of analysis. This novel perspective makes a unique contribution to our understanding of the entrepreneurial process and will be of considerable interest to both scholars and policy makers." - David Audretsch, Indiana University, USA

"This book provides considerable new insight into the entrepreneurial process in such economic sectors as health, networks, family, bankruptcy, religion and technology and such socially sensitive topical areas as gender, ethnicity and migration. It is a breakthrough set of well crafted essays and analyses." - Roger Stough, George Mason University, USA

Book Information
ISBN 9781138212718
Author Marco van Gelderen
Format Paperback
Page Count 242
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 453g