Entrepreneurship: A Very Short Introduction

There has been an explosion of interest in entrepreneurs in the popular media, as well as in business, policy, and education. But what do entrepreneurs do and why is what they do important? Paul Westhead and Mike Wright weave a pathway through the debates about entrepreneurship, providing a guide to the entrepreneurial process. They look at how the actions of entrepreneurs are shaped by the external environment and availability of resources, consider the types of organizations in which they can be found, and look at the diversity in their backgrounds, experience, and how they think and learn. Lastly, they consider the impact that entrepreneurs have on modern market economies and look at the future of entrepreneurship in our increasingly globalized world.

About the Series:

Oxford's Very Short Introductions series offers concise and original introductions to a wide range of subjects--from Islam to Sociology, Politics to Classics, Literary Theory to History, and Archaeology to the Bible. Not simply a textbook of definitions, each volume in this series provides trenchant and provocative--yet always balanced and complete--discussions of the central issues in a given discipline or field. Every Very Short Introduction gives a readable evolution of the subject in question, demonstrating how the subject has developed and how it has influenced society. Eventually, the series will encompass every major academic discipline, offering all students an accessible and abundant reference library. Whatever the area of study that one deems important or appealing, whatever the topic that fascinates the general reader, the Very Short Introductions series has a handy and affordable guide that will likely prove indispensable.

Paul Westhead, Professor of Entrepreneurship, Durham Business School and Visiting Professor Bodo Graduate School of Business, University of Nordland, Norway,Mike Wright, Professor of Entrepreneurship, Centre for Management Buyout Research, Imperial College Business School and University of Ghent, Belgium

Paul Westhead is Professor of Entrepreneurship at Durham University Business School. He has previously held professorial posts at Warwick Business School, Nottingham Business School and Stirling School of Management, where he taught and researched entrepreneurship. Westhead has published 3 authored/edited books and more than 112 academic papers on entrepreneurship, entrepreneur types, family firms, and regional development in leading international journals. His most recent book with Mike Wright and Ged McElwee is Entrepreneurship: Perspectives and Cases was published in 2011 by Pearson. His previous books include Habitual Entrepreneurs (with Deniz Ucbasaran and Mike Wright), and the edited Advances in Entrepreneurship: 3 Volumes published by Edward Elgar (with Mike Wright).

Mike Wright is Professor of Entrepreneurship at Imperial College Business School, Director of the Centre for Management Buyout Research that he founded in 1986, and Associate Director of the Entrepreneurship Research Centre. Wright is currently co-editor of Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal. He has published many books and articles on venture capital, private equity, entrepreneurial mobility, academic entrepreneurs, serial entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial family firms in leading international journals as well as in practitioner journals. His latest books include Private Equity Demystified - 2012 Edition (with John Gilligan, published by ICAEW) and Handbook of Corporate Governance (with Don Siegel, Kevin Keasey and Igor Filatotchev, published by Oxford University Press, 2013). He is Past chair of the Academy of Management Entrepreneurship Division and a recipient of that division's Mentor Award.