This book explores the different stages in the life cycle of the small firm, and ways to solve entrepreneurial dilemmas that the entrepreneur faces during and in-between these different stages of development.

This book explores the different stages in the life cycle of the small firm, and ways to solve entrepreneurial dilemmas that the entrepreneur faces during and in-between these different stages of development.

Transformative Strategies is based around the idea that strategic thinking is critical for organizational success in today’s environment. The financial crisis, continuing economic uncertainty, digitalization, environmental issues, and social issues involved in globalization present strategic problems for enterprises. Unlike other textbooks that take a standard solutions-based approach, Transformative Strategies provides readers with a way to develop strategies that fit their own complex situations and shows how models may be applied in different ways to different problems. Each of the four key elements affecting the business environment (globalization, disruption, collaboration, and responsibility) are addressed as a set of tensions in eight areas: global competition, business model innovation, digital strategizing, business eco-systems, corporate social responsibility, top management teams, and trans-cultural leadership in a globalized world. This tension-based pedagogy enables readers to shift from dichotomized thinking (such as exploring or exploiting) to transformative thinking (such as exploring and exploiting; exploring through exploiting) and readers are challenged to solve real problems that companies face, encouraging them to acknowledge the broader context in which organizations operate and to analyze the problem from multiple perspectives. Each chapter is structured to aid engagement and discussion, including a discussion of the tension tied to the chapter’s topic, learning objectives, theoretical frameworks, real life case studies, exercises and reflective questions. A highly practical book that encourages readers to develop solutions that fit their own complex problems, it will be particularly suitable for those studying strategic management as part of an MBA, MA or MSc in Management, as well as those in executive education. It will also appeal to all those interested in learning how to lead and transform organizations towards impact, purpose and relevance. Online resources include discussions of the case studies, supplementary problems for class discussion, and an instructors’ manual outlining the pedagogical approach.

Small Firm Growth comprehensively reviews the empirical literature on small firm growth to highlight and integrate what is known about this phenomenon and take stock of what past experiences of researching this area implies for how the phenomenon can or should be studied in future research.

The Handbook of Research on Designing Sustainable Strategies to Develop Entrepreneurial Intention is a comprehensive book that addresses the issue of entrepreneurial intention and its development. The book highlights the significant role of entrepreneurship in the growth and development of economies and presents a global understanding of entrepreneurial intention. It discusses how the “seeds” of entrepreneurial intention are sown, and how a supportive entrepreneurial ecosystem can develop successful entrepreneurs. The book provides insights into the challenges and apprehensions faced by aspiring entrepreneurs. This book develops models and frameworks to identify strategies, best practices, case studies, and successful examples from multiple regions to develop entrepreneurial intention among students of higher education. It bridges the gap between policies related to the entrepreneurial ecosystem and its implementation to nurture entrepreneurial intention among aspiring entrepreneurs. This book is an essential resource for researchers, industry practitioners, academicians, higher education institutions, students, policy makers, corporate executives, banks, venture capitalists, angel investors, and entrepreneurs trying to re-enter. It is also highly useful for undergraduate, graduate, and research level students pursuing entrepreneurship education and aspiring to become entrepreneurs. Overall, the book provides an in-depth understanding of entrepreneurial intention and how it can be nurtured to create successful entrepreneurs, making it an important reference for anyone interested in entrepreneurship and economic growth.

If you want your startup to succeed, you need to understand why startups fail. “Whether you’re a first-time founder or looking to bring innovation into a corporate environment, Why Startups Fail is essential reading.”—Eric Ries, founder and CEO, LTSE, and New York Times bestselling author of The Lean Startup and The Startup Way Why do startups fail? That question caught Harvard Business School professor Tom Eisenmann by surprise when he realized he couldn’t answer it. So he launched a multiyear research project to find out. In Why Startups Fail, Eisenmann reveals his findings: six distinct patterns that account for the vast majority of startup failures. • Bad Bedfellows. Startup success is thought to rest largely on the founder’s talents and instincts. But the wrong team, investors, or partners can sink a venture just as quickly. • False Starts. In following the oft-cited advice to “fail fast” and to “launch before you’re ready,” founders risk wasting time and capital on the wrong solutions. • False Promises. Success with early adopters can be misleading and give founders unwarranted confidence to expand. • Speed Traps. Despite the pressure to “get big fast,” hypergrowth can spell disaster for even the most promising ventures. • Help Wanted. Rapidly scaling startups need lots of capital and talent, but they can make mistakes that leave them suddenly in short supply of both. • Cascading Miracles. Silicon Valley exhorts entrepreneurs to dream big. But the bigger the vision, the more things that can go wrong. Drawing on fascinating stories of ventures that failed to fulfill their early promise—from a home-furnishings retailer to a concierge dog-walking service, from a dating app to the inventor of a sophisticated social robot, from a fashion brand to a startup deploying a vast network of charging stations for electric vehicles—Eisenmann offers frameworks for detecting when a venture is vulnerable to these patterns, along with a wealth of strategies and tactics for avoiding them. A must-read for founders at any stage of their entrepreneurial journey, Why Startups Fail is not merely a guide to preventing failure but also a roadmap charting the path to startup success.

In this volume, M. Afzalur Rahim gathers ten contributions covering a diverse range of topics. These include Type III error in medical decision making, a theoretical model of social intelligence, a structural equations model of social intelligence, servant theory of leadership, entrepreneurial motives and orientations, stress and strain among self-employed and organizationally employed employees, a theory of communication nexus, foreign direct investment from emerging markets, operations and strategy of healthcare management, and knowledge recipients and knowledge transfer. Contents include: Foundations of Social Intelligence; A Model of Leaders’ Social Intelligence, Interpersonal Justice, and Creative Performance; Servant Leadership and Psychological Climate as Moderators of Job Satisfaction–"Organizational Citizenship Behavior Relationship"; "Entrepreneurship Motives, Entrepreneurial Orientation, and Duration of New French Firms"; "Relationship between Job-Related Stressors and Job Burnout"; "Communicating in the 21st Century Workplace"; "Outward Foreign Direct Investment Activities and Strategies by Firms from Emerging Markets"; "Healthcare Management"; and "The Relationships of Knowledge Recipients to Knowledge Transfer." Cumulatively, these contributions integrate theory, research, and practice from national and international perspectives.