Since 1995 the teaching of entrepreneurship has become something of a growth industry in Scotland, largely as a result of the Scottish Business Birthrate Strategy initiated by Scottish Enterprise. Many of the Centres for Entrepreneurship that exist to co-ordinate entrepreneurship teaching in Higher Education support teaching by the case method and are active in engaging entrepreneurs in the tea...

Background: Entrepreneurship plays an important role in the development of any country. Entrepreneurship is seen as the driving force behind economic development and the identification of opportunities and the use of resources, and entrepreneurs are those who, by recognizing opportunities, ensure success in manufacturing, business, and services. However, it should be noted that the criterion fo...

Nascent Entrepreneurs Nascent entrepreneurs are people who are engaged in creating new ventures. This chapter reviews the international evidence on how many of them are there around the world, what they are doing, who they are, what makes them different, and which ones see their vision through to eventual start-up. JEL Classification: J23

Our research explores an understudied topic in the field of entrepreneurship: the insecurity experienced by a group of entrepreneurs known as necessity entrepreneurs. Although little attention has been paid to this phenomenon, in the entrepreneurship literature, necessity entrepreneurs, more than ever, represent a very important social group in an increasingly tough economic and social climate....

Creativity and the Family Tree: Human Capital Endowments and the Propensity of Entrepreneurs to Patent In this paper we show that the patenting behavior of creative entrepreneurs is correlated with the patenting behavior of their fathers, which we refer to as a source of the entrepreneurs’ human capital endowments. Our argument for this relationship follows from established theories of developm...

This paper presents a theoretical framework in which the relationships between ethnic entrepreneurs and the communities in which they work can be understood. The nature of social ties that affect ethnic entrepreneurs is described. Drawing on concepts from the family business literature, it is proposed that entrepreneurs will have an ambivalent relationship with their employees, customers, co-et...

AIMS Entering entrepreneurship (i.e. becoming an entrepreneur) is known to be a demanding activity with increased workload, financial uncertainty and increased levels of stress. However, there are no systematic studies on how entering entrepreneurship affects the people involved. METHODS The authors investigated prescriptions of psychotropics for 6,221 first-time entrepreneurs from 2001-2004 ...

A game theoretic model is used to examine the dynamics governing repeated interaction between Mafiosi running extortion rackets and entrepreneurs operating fixed establishments. We characterize the conditions under which violence occurs. Entrepreneurs pay protection money to the Mafia because they fear the Mafia’s ability to punish. However, the entrepreneurs’ willingness to pay encourages oppo...

We study market ine¢ ciencies and policy remedies when agents choose their occupations, and entrepreneurial talent is subject to private information. Untalented entrepreneurs depress the returns to entrepreneurship because of adverse selection. The severity of this problem depends on the outside option of entrepreneurs, which is working for wages. This links credit, product and labour markets. ...