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Entrepreneurship
David Kirby McGraw-Hill London xxvi+333 pp. ISBN 0-0770-9858-7
In this excellent textbook, David Kirby presents a comprehensive analysis of entrepreneurship and related issues. It provides highly informative and well-written coverage of all the major topics in the field. The book should be of great interest to a wide spectrum of readers, including educators, trainers, students, budding entrepreneurs, directors of new and growing ventures, corporate executives and policy makers. It has a number of features that renders it suitable as an introductory entrepreneurship textbook. There are real life case studies (prominently featuring the Internet) that provide context for conceptual discussion, practical exercises, questions which encourage readers to link the topics under consideration to their own experiences, learning activities for each of the four major styles, and a good selection of references. Useful online support for the book is also included. There is discussion of the conceptual issues raised by entrepreneurship and concentration upon the processes involved in entrepreneurial development. The treatment of this is divided into three sections, namely developing entrepreneurship in society and the economy, in people and in organisations. The conceptual and contextual treatments of entrepreneurship are very well balanced. The application of entrepreneurial theory to practice is a central theme, with theoretical discussion and practical advice effectively complementing each other.
The first four chapters concentrate upon the cultural and institutional complexities surrounding entrepreneurship. In the first chapter, Kirby examines the definition of entrepreneurship and observes that there is no overall agreement about this. The concept of the entrepreneur is reviewed in the light of classical and neo-classical economic thought. It is emphasized that entrepreneurship is not...