Entrepreneurial Communities and Ecosystems: Case Study Insights aims to provide applied examples that embody the theories, principles, and processes that contribute to empowering everyday entrepreneurial communities and ecosystems. Relying on a diversity of narratives from a wide range of entrepreneurial communities, entrepreneurial ecosystems, and organizations, this book presents a collection of case studies that take the reader inside the minds of leaders who are working to empower entrepreneurs and build entrepreneurial ecosystems and entrepreneurial communities—sometimes from scratch. The book features research and stories from entrepreneurs, development agencies, entrepreneurial support and assistance organizations (i.e. feeders and supports), governments, and involved citizens and local leaders in their quest to make their communities more entrepreneuring. The book presents an analytic frame through which the case studies are cross-analyzed, providing meta-guidelines for pursuing a broad range of strategies for supporting local and regional entrepreneurial action. This research volume is equally useful as an undergraduate or graduate text on the sociology of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship as it is a field guide for ecosystem builders, policy makers, nonprofits, and entrepreneurship and social researchers worldwide.

Entrepreneurial Communities and Ecosystems: Theories in Culture, Empowerment, and Leadership examines the deep sociocultural dynamics supporting effective and emergent entrepreneurial ecosystems and communities for a new generation of ecosystem builders and researchers. The book provides current theories and discussion with relevant examples regarding culture, empowerment, and leadership in entrepreneurship to build more entrepreneurial communities anywhere, beginning with any set of local advantages. It clarifies the role of community in building an entrepreneurial ecosystem, and expands the theory on how entrepreneurial communities and ecosystems differ, and how they relate. The book also illuminates the often avoided discussion about power, with special attention to diversity with examples of Black, women, and LGBTQA+ entrepreneurship; provides a deep dive into the range of formal and informal education framed as entreprenology; ties the importance of entrepreneurship and entrepreneuring to resources available at the community, state, and national levels; and introduces a new concept — omnipreneurship — which puts the skills of entrepreneurship in the service of global benefit and everyday action. This research volume will be equally useful as an undergraduate or graduate text on the sociology of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship as it is a field guide for ecosystem builders, policy makers, nonprofits, and entrepreneurship and social researchers worldwide.

An essential guide to building supportive entrepreneurial communities "Startup communities" are popping up everywhere, from cities like Boulder to Boston and even in countries such as Iceland. These types of entrepreneurial ecosystems are driving innovation and small business energy. Startup Communities documents the buzz, strategy, long-term perspective, and dynamics of building communities of entrepreneurs who can feed off of each other's talent, creativity, and support. Based on more than twenty years of Boulder-based entrepreneur turned-venture capitalist Brad Feld's experience in the field?as well as contributions from other innovative startup communities?this reliable resource skillfully explores what it takes to create an entrepreneurial community in any city, at any time. Along the way, it offers valuable insights into increasing the breadth and depth of the entrepreneurial ecosystem by multiplying connections among entrepreneurs and mentors, improving access to entrepreneurial education, and much more. Details the four critical principles needed to form a sustainable startup community Perfect for entrepreneurs and venture capitalists seeking fresh ideas and new opportunities Written by Brad Feld, a thought-leader in this field who has been an early-stage investor and successful entrepreneur for more than twenty years Engaging and informative, this practical guide not only shows you how startup communities work, but it also shows you how to make them work anywhere in the world.

Considering language a relevant strategic instrument that entrepreneurs and managers can use to seek external resources, this book investigates and discusses whether and under which conditions language strategies can facilitate entrepreneurs’ social support and legitimation as well as access to external resources. This book systematically integrates language into the entrepreneurial finance literature and develops a new and more comprehensive framework that relates crowdfunding to language strategies. Therefore, readers will comprehend how language choices, frames and narratives influence companies’ ability to secure social and financial support, and therefore sustain the development of their venture. Overall, this book provides insights into how entrepreneurs can use language as a strategic tool for accessing resources and support from external stakeholders, thereby considering, alongside traditional economic approaches, institutional processes of meaning-making.

This book dives deep into everyday entrepreneurial stories with an engaging narrative, based on theory, while providing practical implications by highlighting diverse entrepreneurial examples in emerging themes. It provides a collection of concise authentic entrepreneurship case studies, organized into three main themes: digital entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial learning innovations, and challenging entrepreneurship. The featured case studies are based mainly on primary data gathered from entrepreneurs and active members within the entrepreneurship ecosystem all over the globe, at different stages of the entrepreneurial process. Thus, it moves away from the typical unicorns and flagship start-up stories, which are abundant in management literature, to dive deep into realistic everyday entrepreneurial narratives. This edited collection will be of interest to researchers, academics, practitioners, and students in the fields of entrepreneurship and small business management, international business, and management education.

For many years, entrepreneurship has been considered as one of the most important solutions to the three-pronged challenges, poverty, unemployment and inequality, of most African countries. A recent development that has undoubtedly compounded the challenges that African entrepreneurs face and further impede the economic growth impact is Covid-19. This pandemic has exerted severe damage to economies and businesses globally. For the African setting, the implications of Covid-19 on businesses and individuals would be enormous, as African societies are rarely equipped to absorb unexpected shocks of this magnitude as the social and welfare schemes are far below requirements. This book illuminates entrepreneurship in the African setting, focusing on the prospects, challenges, and the post-Covid-19 pandemic future. It aims to offer a rich repository of information on strategies and techniques for sustaining entrepreneurial activities that can enrich African nations and will be of relevance to academics, researchers, advanced students, entrepreneurs, governments, and government agencies who are interested in understanding issues relating to entrepreneurship development within the African continent.

Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Crisis: SME Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic aims to address the conditions for the operations of SMEs during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the governmental support for entrepreneurs in such industries as tourism, manufacturing, recycling, education, and printing as well as the creative industry. Through the presentation of various strategies for the functioning and development of companies under crisis conditions along with new management approaches for coping with them, this book discusses the conditions for the operations of SMEs during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the support for entrepreneurs that has been offered by the governments of different countries. This approach will allow our results to be useful for a wide audience – making it especially valuable to researchers, academics, policymakers, and advanced students who are interested in crises, entrepreneurship, small and medium-sized enterprises, and strategic management.