Resourcing the Start-Up Business: Creating Dynamic Entrepreneurial Learning Capabilities(Routledge Masters in Entrepreneurship)

Starting a business successfully requires numerous skills and resources. The alarming rate of failures associated with new ventures suggests that potential entrepreneurs would welcome expert advice at the most vital stage in the life of any business. The expert author team focus on those resources, skills, capabilities and learning required by any entrepreneur in the process of starting a new business. Specifically, this text aims to: Introduce and explain those resources (including finance) that are essential to successful business creation Identify the key skills and capabilities that are required by entrepreneurs Highlight the ways in which new resources are combined with the entrepreneur’s existing resource base to develop the business effectively Explore the way entrepreneurs learn in the process of developing their business Drawing on the most up-to-date and most relevant research, this concise textbook provides students and academics of entrepreneurship with a practical guide to acquiring the appropriate resources in order to start a new firm.

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction: Dynamic Entrepreneurial Learning Capabilities 2. The Changing Nature of Entrepreneurial Theory 3. Learning to be an Entrepreneur 4. Knowledge, Skills and Capabilities 5. Networks, Social Capital and Entrepreneurial Resources 6. Resourcing Start-Up Businesses 7. Enhancing Tangible Resources 8. Bootstrapping the Start-Up Business 9. Dynamic Capabilities in Entrepreneurial Ventures 10. Growing New Businesses 11. New Businesses and Economic Development 12. Conclusions: Creating Dynamic Learning Businesses

About the Author :
Oswald Jones is Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Liverpool, UK Allan Macpherson is Associate Professor of Management at University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, US and Professor of Organisational Behaviour at De Montfort University, UK. Dilani Jayawarna is Senior Lecturer at the University of Liverpool, UK.

Review :
This is a breakthrough book in its approach to entrepreneurial learning and new venturing in both style and substance. It eschews many conventional approaches by engaging with all key influences upon the success of the venture, and the associated learning needs. It therefore moves beyond the convention of focusing narrowly of knowledge content and pedagogy of the individual confronting start-up process itself. It, importantly, summarises the desired learning approaches needed to address all aspects of, and influences upon, the venture success. Allan Gibb, Professor Emeritus, University of Durham, UK and holder of the first European Academic Entrepreneurship Education Award 2012 Grounded in both the relevant literature and real-life case studies, this textbook provides students and early stage entrepreneurs with both a theoretical and practical foundation for tackling the many challenges they are likely to confront in establishing and growing a new venture.Winthrop Professor John Watson, The University of Western Australia, Australia An insightful resource book for would-be entrepreneurs. Professor Pooran Wynarczyk, Newcastle University, UK The move away from the heroic concept of the entrepreneur to one that explores the realities of starting up a business is welcome. The Book encourages the reader to reflect on the key lessons provided from each chapter in a way that clearly sets out learning objectives supported by case material and sample discussion questions. Resourcing the Start-up Business is a refreshing addition to the postgraduate entrepreneurship catalogue. Professor Clare Brindley, Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University , UK An insightful and well-timed publication that goes beyond simply guiding the reader through the resources needed to develop and support entrepreneurs, focussing instead on embedding dynamic learning capabilities through effective experiential learning, and stimulating these nascent entrepreneurs to go on to develop growth-oriented businesses that make a real contribution to economic development. An essential read that offers a link between an entrepreneur’s dynamic learning capability when establishing a new venture and the likelihood that that business will grow. David Taylor, Principal Lecturer in Entrepreneurship, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK Drawing upon a range of disciplinary perspectives, our understanding of issues relating to Entrepreneurship has expanded rapidly in recent years. This makes it difficult for researchers, teachers and students to be continually up-to-date in the latest thinking, but Jones et al address this by combining disciplinary diversity with current research findings and debates. What I found particularly helpful was the coverage of topics and approaches with which I was unfamiliar and with these being explained using easy-to-understand language. David Storey, OBE, Professor, University of Sussex ,UK Resourcing the Start-up Business is a genuinely insightful book that is ideal for both students of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs about to start a venture. It is eloquently written, brilliantly weaves together key resource considerations for start-ups and explains clearly the entrepreneurial learning process. Luke Pittaway, Professor and Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship, Ohio University, USA