Entrepreneurs play a central role in economic growth and development, but how they do so is the subject of considerable debate. This book explains that process through an historical case study of an automobile insurance entrepreneur, Samuel P. Black, Jr., and Erie Insurance, the company he helped build. It also recounts the largely untold history of American automobile insurance. One of this study's central themes is the role of innovation in the entrepreneurial process. The rise of Erie Insurance from a four-person enterprise in Erie, Pennsylvania, in 1925 to the fourteenth largest property-casualty insurer today was the result, in part, of Black's relentless push to innovate. His continual efforts to cut costs, develop new products, satisfy customers, increase sales, and improve operations, all contributed greatly to the company's growth. A second theme is the automobile's dramatic impact on modern America. Its takeover of mass transportation provided the basis for the development of the automobile insurance industry and created many of the opportunities that Black and Erie Insurance capitalized on. These themes combine in the history of Black and Erie Insurance to illuminate the dynamic process by which the cultural, social, economic, and technological environment creates opportunities that entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial firms exploit, and how entrepreneurial actions stimulate economic growth.

This book explores the ways in which the adoption of new paradigms, processes, and technologies can lead to greater revenue, cost efficiency and control, as well as improved business agility in the insurance industry.

This book presents a systematic literature review of 156 published papers on business model innovation (BMI). The aim is to identify and integrate the different theoretical perspectives, analytical levels, and empirical contexts in order to deepen understanding of this complex phenomenon. The authors conduct an inductive thematic analysis based on an informal ontological classification that identifies 56 key themes. Within each theme, discussion focuses on thematic patterns, potential inconsistencies and debates, and future directions and opportunities for research. The book makes a number of significant contributions to the field. First, it offers a deeper understanding of the evolution of research on BMI through an ontological map that identifies the key thematic areas in the literature. Second, a multilevel model is developed that clarifies the concept of BMI by identifying its drivers, contingencies, and outcomes. Third, the authors identify clear and specific directions for further research and offer suggestions on research design, creating an informative road map for the future. The book will be of value both to scholars and researchers and to practitioners.

The definitive compendium for the Insurance Digital Revolution From slow beginnings in 2014, InsurTech has captured US$7billion in investment since 2010 — a 10% annual compound growth rate is predicted until at least 2020. Three in four insurance companies believe some part of their business is at risk of disruption and understanding the trends, drivers and emerging technologies behind Insurance’s Digital Revolution is a business-critical priority for all growth-minded firms. The InsurTech Book offers essential updates, critical thinking and actionable insight — globally — from start-ups, incumbents, investors, tech companies, advisors and other partners in this evolving ecosystem, in one volume. For some, Insurance is either facing an existential threat; for others, it is a sector on the brink of transforming itself. Either way, business models, value chains, customer understanding and engagement, organisational structures and even what Insurance is for, is never going to be the same. Be informed, be part of it. Learn from diverse experiences, mindsets and applications of technologies Discover new ways of defining and grasping growth opportunities Get the inside track from innovators, disruptors and incumbents Be updated on the evolution of InsurTech, why it is happening and how it will evolve Explore visions of the future of Insurance to help shape yours The InsurTech Book is your indispensable guide to a sector in transformation.

New small business owners are constantly pressured to play a major role in the economic growth of their respected nation. However, revitalizing how individuals think, research, teach, and implement performance strategies to improve the operations of these small businesses is critical to entrepreneurial success. Reshaping Entrepreneurship Education With Strategy and Innovation is an essential reference source that discusses strategies to overcome performance barriers as well as implementation of effective entrepreneurial processes based on a wide range of global issues. Featuring research on topics such as authentic leadership, business ethics, and social entrepreneurship, this book is ideally designed for entrepreneurs, business professionals, scholars, researchers, students, and practitioners seeking coverage on innovative performance operations of small businesses.

Enterprise, Entrepreneurship and Innovation: Concepts, Contexts and Commercialisation provides readers with an accessible and readable introduction to the various dimensions of entrepreneurship and market innovation. It has a clear structure that is easy for the reader to follow and it focuses on enterprising behaviour. The text contains: * case studies and ‘pause and reflect’ situations for the entrepreneur to deliberate on the information they have available before making their decision. This helps to emphasise the point that there are few simple and straightforward decisions closely reflecting decisions in ‘real life’. * integrative personal development activities that provide a basis for readers to reflect on the learning of the chapters and develop a personal development strategy to increase their ability to become more entrepreneurial and improve their ability to manage market innovation. * an accompanying website giving students and lecturers access to additional resources in order to explore the subject further. A full set of powerpoint slides plus exercises is included, plus suggestions for the use in class of the case studies and other illustrations. Students can access further learning resources to build up their knowledge of innovation situations using the hotlinks to useful websites that will add further depth and bring up to date the case studies and illustrations. Enterprise, Entrepreneurship and Innovation: Concepts, Contexts and Commercialisation shows: * how to understand and acquire the entrepreneur’s skills, attitudes and knowledge * the techniques needed to generate new business and create a new organisation * how to become more innovative, self reliant, and opportunistic. * the learning and decision-making processes of entrepreneurs

In the 20th century, the dominance of firms in a market was based mainly on scale and large resources (George & Bock 2011). In contrast, firm success in the 21st century is influenced less by arguments about economies of scale in production and distribution (McQuivey 2013; Jin Zhang et al. 2015). It has become more important to explore novel ways of engaging customers and getting them to pay (Baden-Fuller & Mangematin 2015). This is the age of the customer, and customers alone dominate the purpose of business (e.g., Morris et al. 2005; Johnson et al. 2008).