While characteristically "Austrian" economic themes are clearly relevant to the business firm, Austrian economists have said little about management, organization and strategy. The 12 chapters in this work seek to advance the understanding of these issues by drawing on Austrian ideas.

`A major contribution of this exciting book is the perspective of the subsidiary manager operating network.... In its extreme version this means that all managers are subsidiary managers... challenging those who still view multinationals as hierarchies. With exceptional clarity of thought and writing, Julian Birkinshaw stakes out the ground as a major new thinker in the fields of international business and strategic management ′ - Alan Rugman, Templeton College, University of Oxford Much current literature on globalization and competition focuses on the external environment in which firms operate. Julian Birkinshaw′s book looks within international firms at the dynamics that affect their growth and position. Are local managers seizing power from the centre? Is `glocialization′ the inevitable result of globalization? Based on fresh case evidence gathered in Europe and North America, the findings in this book about multi-national firms and managers make a significant contribution to some of the key debates on the transfer of knowledge in firms; the resource-based view; and the network forms of organization. The initiatives of local managers reflect local knowledge, skills and resources and at the same time impact of the distribution of power in the wider organization. By taking as his perspective that of the subsidiary manager operating in a network, Julian Birkinshaw extends the implications of his findings to all managers in organizations and challenges those who still view organizations as hierarchies.

Exploring the relationships between the growth of firms and entrepreneurship, the authors have drawn on many individual projects & case studies to provide a comprehensive analysis.

Often considered one of the major forces behind economic growth and development, the entrepreneurial firm can accelerate the speed of innovation and dissemination of new technologies, thus increasing a country's competitive edge in the global market. As a result, cultivating a strong culture of entrepreneurial thinking has become a primary goal throughout the world. Surprisingly, there has been little systematic research or comparative analysis to show how the growth of entrepreneurship differs among countries in various stages of development. International Differences in Entrepreneurship fills this void by explaining how a country's institutional differences, cultural considerations, and personal characteristics can affect the role that entrepreneurs play in its economy. Developing an understanding of the origins of entrepreneurs as well as the choices they make and the complexity of their activities across countries and industries are of central importance to this volume. In addition, contributors consider how environmental factors of individual economies, such as market regulation, government subsidies for banks, and support for entrepreneurial culture affect the industry and the impact that entrepreneurs have on growth in developing nations.

This research program began in 1993. The idea of developing representative samples of those active in the business creation process, now called nascent entrepreneurs, developed from the success of using regional characteristics to 1 predict variations in new firm birth rates in six countries. The initial purpose was to determine those external factors that encouraged individuals to initiate the business creation process and become, as they are now called, nascent entrepreneurs. The research procedures, mainly the critical aspects of the scre- ing procedures, were developed with the Survey Research Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin in Madison to complete the Wisconsin Entrepreneurial 2 Climate Study. Support for an initial test with a national sample was provided by the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. Richard Curtin became involved with the incorporation of the screening module as part 3 of the Survey of Consumers in October and November in 1993. The success of these efforts in providing a detailed description of the ent- preneurial process based on representative samples led to substantial interest among entrepreneurial scholars. A founding team of Nancy Carter, William Gartner, and Paul Reynolds was able to organize the Entrepreneurial Research Consortium (ERC), a collaborative network of 34 research units that shared the financial cost and sweat equity required to implement the first national project, 4 PSED I.

This book, originally published in 1982, review the resurrection of the small firm, partly by a multi-disciplined examination of the existing literature on small and new firms and partly by reporting the results of a study of firms new (in the early 1980s) to the North East of England. Part 1 deals with the role of small firms as sources of potential or actual competition, and their role in research and innovation. In Part 2 the theoretical foundations for the study of entrepreneurs and their new firms are laid, using concepts from a cross-section of the social sciences. Part 3 tests some of the theories outlined in Part 2 and reviews the problems which the entrepreneurs faced in starting and developing their business and the impact which such businesses had upon the local economy. Part 4 reviews the lessons of the preceding parts in the context of the regional and national economy of the UK.

Measuring Entrepreneurial Businesses: Current Knowledge and Challenges brings together and unprecedented group of economists, data providers, and data analysts to discuss research on the state of entrepreneurship and to address the challenges in understanding this dynamic part of the economy. Each chapter addresses the challenges of measuring entrepreneurship and how entrepreneurial firms contribute to economies and standards of living. The book also investigates heterogeneity in entrepreneurs, challenges experienced by entrepreneurs over time, and how much less we know than we think about entrepreneurship given data limitations. This volume will be a groundbreaking first serious look into entrepreneurship in the NBER's Income and Wealth series.