Perspectives in Entrepreneurship: A Critical Approach

This core textbook presents different ways of thinking about entrepreneurship: instead of topics such as finance or opportunities, the book focuses on perspectives or ways of seeing. Written by leading experts, the text examines the emergence and development of entrepreneurship as an academic discipline and takes a critical look at the varying positions in the field as well as their overall contribution to entrepreneurship as a whole. Through twelve chapters, written from such wide ranging perspectives as feminism, psychology, institutionalism, critical realism and evolution, the book provides a clear and accessible framework that encourages students’ critical engagement with the subject. This is an essential textbook for upper level undergraduate and postgraduate students of entrepreneurship.

Table of Contents:
PART ONE: MICRO PERSPECTIVES The Rational Choice Approach to Entrepreneurship; K. Mole & S. Roper The Pyschology of the Entrepreneursh; L. Kolvereid & E. Isaksen Undertaking Interpretive Work in Entrepreneurship Research;D. Fletcher PART TWO: MACRO PERSPECTIVES Feminism, Gender and Entrepreneurship; S. Marlow An Introduction to Network Approaches and Embeddedness; S. Drakopoulos Dodd Entrepreneurship and Neo-Institutional Theory; P. Tracey Evolution and Entrepreneurship; D. Breslin Entrepreneurship in the Context of the Resource Based View of the Firm; N. Foss PART THREE: INTEGRATING MICRO AND MACRO PERSPECTIVES Critical Realism and Entrepreneurship; K. Mole Critical Theories of Entrepreneurship; A Spicer Pragmatism, Reality and Entrepreneurship: Entrepreneurial Action and Effectuation Perspectives; T. Watson.

About the Author :
KEVIN MOLE Associate Professor in Enterprise at Warwick Business School, UK, having previously been Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (CSME). He has published in a number of journals including Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Business Venturing, British Journal of Management, Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, and the International Small Business Journal. MONDER RAM Professor of Small Business at De Montfort University, UK, and Director of the Centre for Research in Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurship (CREME). He has extensive experience of working in, researching, and acting as a consultant to ethnic minority businesses and has published widely on the subject. Monder is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and is a director of the Institute of Small Business Affairs. Monder is also a member of the Department of Trade and Industry's Ethnic Minority Business Forum and Small Business Council. KEVIN MOLE Associate Professor in Enterprise at Warwick Business School, UK, having previously been Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (CSME). He has published in a number of journals including Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Business Venturing, British Journal of Management, Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, and the International Small Business Journal. MONDER RAM Professor of Small Business at De Montfort University, UK, and Director of the Centre for Research in Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurship (CREME). He has extensive experience of working in, researching, and acting as a consultant to ethnic minority businesses and has published widely on the subject. Monder is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and is a director of the Institute of Small Business Affairs. Monder is also a member of the Department of Trade and Industry's Ethnic Minority Business Forum and Small Business Council.

Review :
'Kevin Mole and Monder Ramconclude this wide-ranging volume by observing that this is a very positive time to study entrepreneurship. On the basis of the diverse approaches thoughtfully covered in this volume, this is a sentiment which will be echoed by future generations of student readers.' - David Storey, Professor of Enterprise, University of Sussex 'This book brings together a welcome but seldom offered exposure to, and critique of, different approaches to the study of entrepreneurship. It elucidates these approaches, and their merits and demerits, very effectively through well chosen studies across chapters. It is a valuable addition to the literature on entrepreneurship and should be read by any serious student in this field.' - Ken O'Neill, Professor Emeritus of Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development, University of Ulster 'Conventional business education too often provides a single theoretical approach for examining complex business issues. As a result, students and even some faculty forget that theoretical models are man-made tools, not literal representations of reality. This book's collection of many different perspectives on entrepreneurship is a rare resource for helping students and other readers develop the capacity to frame this important business phenomenon from multiple points of view.' - Anne Colby, Consulting Professor, Stanford University; co-author of Rethinking Undergraduate Business Education