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By Amar V. Bhide. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. 412 pages, hard cover, $35.00.
Amar Bhide's The Origin and Evolution of New Businesses is a comprehensive, logically presented, substantively documented, and readable analysis of the factors contributing to entrepreneurial achievement. Based on more than a decade of rigorous research undertaken as a member of the Harvard Business School faculty, the author dispels popular myths typically attributed to successful entrepreneurs and their business endeavors. Although he writes primarily from an economic perspective, Bhide includes numerous anecdotes drawn from personal interviews and astutely presents pertinent behavioral and social theories. By analyzing the attributes of entrepreneurs and the characteristics of promising startups, the author develops a framework for understanding the origin and economic evolution of the large corporation, identifies the ways in which individuals and corporate entities begin new initiatives, and concludes by examining the broader economic and social implications of his research.
While developing a course on new ventures, and in response to the dearth of research on the subject, Bhide began a two-phase investigation into the origins of promising new businesses. The first phase consisted of extensive interviews with 100 company founders drawn from the 1989 Inc. 500, a compilation by Inc. magazine of the 500 fastestgrowing, privately held companies in the United States. The second phase consisted of a mail survey of 100 self-employed Harvard...