Enterprise and entrepreneurship is of strong interest to policy-makers because new and small firms can be a key contributor to job and wealth creation. However this contribution varies spatially, with some areas in a country having new firm formation rates that are up to three or four times higher than others. The vast majority of these new firms begin in the geographical area in which the founder lives, works or was born emphasising that entrepreneurship is a local event. The book documents a diversity of research approaches to examining the regional determinants of entrepreneurship in countries as contrasting as India and Sweden. The Editors call is for scholars to better understand the long run factors that influence enterprise at the local and regional level. For policy makers the Editors challenge is for them to be much clearer about the targets for their policies. Is it new firms, new jobs, productivity and does it matter where these targets are delivered? This book was published as a special issue of Regional Studies.

What is entrepreneurship? Is it important? What do entrepreneurs actually do? These are a few of the key questions considered in this Very Short Introduction. Paul Westhead and Mike Wright provide a clear guide to all aspects of the process of entrepreneurship, including the diversity of the people involved and the benefits it brings to society.

This book addresses a gap in the present literature on the role that geography plays in the distribution of entrepreneurial activity. Emerging work on entrepreneurial ecosystems suggests it is important entrepreneurship studies move beyond the mere identification of factors that impact entrepreneurial activity to consider the unique geographic contexts in which entrepreneurs operate. These contexts include a variety of interactive elements including regional characteristics, institutions, actors, and connectors. As such, this collection analyses entrepreneurial activity in regions around the globe. The contributions explore a series of diverse regions in terms of their geographic, historical, industrial, and institutional contexts. The book also explores a range of topics, such as patterns of regional/subnational variations in entrepreneurial activity, geographically mediated determinants of entrepreneurship, inter-temporal dynamics, evolution of regional systems of entrepreneurship, and the impact of entrepreneurship on regional development and regional entrepreneurship policy. This book enhances our policy and practical knowledge about the unique regional context in which entrepreneurs operate and demonstrates the important role that geography plays in the spatial distribution of entrepreneurial activity.

Universities are becoming more entrepreneurial, and for local communities and companies, this has increased their economic standings tenfold. However, the competitiveness of developing economies thanks to these financially focused institutions has likewise increased. Examining the Role of Entrepreneurial Universities in Regional Development provides emerging research exploring how universities foster and support entrepreneurship and the development of a more entrepreneurial organization and highlights the importance of this process for local communities and companies. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as institutional entrepreneurship, public management, and economic contribution, this book is ideally designed for university presidents, provosts, rectors, chancellors, board members, managers, business professionals, policymakers, academicians, students, and researchers.

Regional Dimensions of Entrepreneurship reviews the theoretical arguments supporting the idea that entrepreneurial activities and entrepreneurial success are influenced by the attributes of the region where the potential founder and the real founder of a firm was or actually is located. The author explains that the regional environment is an important context variable and cannot be ignored when exploring the determinants of firm creation and of new firm growth. Regional Dimensions of Entrepreneurship consists of the theoretical foundations, empirical evidence and policy implications for the importance of regional issues. Finally, the author provides an overview of the literature on regional entrepreneurship, covering as many countries and sub-national regions as possible, with a certain focus on Western Europe and North America due in part to the particularly large quantity of empirical research on regional entrepreneurship and regionally focused entrepreneurship policies in these areas.

This volume discusses entrepreneurship education in Europe on the basis of in-depth case studies of related activities at twenty higher education institutions. Based on a model of entrepreneurship education, the analysis addresses curricular and extra-curricular teaching, as well as the institutional and stakeholder context of delivering entrepreneurship education within higher educational institutions. The book offers both insightful entrepreneurship teaching practices and a discussion of potential organizational drivers and barriers. Accordingly, it provides a valuable resource for researchers, instructors, and managers of entrepreneurship education alike.

This book addresses the role of cooperation, networks and institutions in the context of regional innovation systems. It emphasises the importance of these factors in the emergence of local innovation systems, using detailed examples of clusters which have reached different stages of maturity. The authors address the topic from an empirical, theoretical and political perspective, and highlight the local mechanisms which are involved in the development of innovation systems. They offer a comprehensive overview of different approaches in the field and present numerous case studies which stress the influence of networks and local institutions. Significantly, they also introduce several new approaches to regional innovation systems, including contributions which explicitly discuss the design and potential of policy measures to promote regional development. The policy recommendations are based on sound theorising which, in turn, is based on extensive empirical research. This book is a valuable addition to a complex and growing literature which offers new perspectives and insights on cooperation, networks and institutions, and their role in the development of local systems of innovation. The combination of empirical, theoretical and policy-oriented approaches will ensure this book is essential reading for academics and policymakers in the fields of regional economics, innovation research and economic geography.