Entrepreneurship and New Value Creation: The Dynamic of the Entrepreneurial Process

Citation

Ratten, V. (2008), "Entrepreneurship and New Value Creation: The Dynamic of the Entrepreneurial Process", Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy, Vol. 2 No. 4, pp. 402-403. https://doi.org/10.1108/17506200810913944

Entrepreneurship is a dynamic and evolving process that changes depending on the type of value being created. Alain Fayolle's book discusses how entrepreneurship is an important part of society by focusing on the new value creation process. The book is divided into four parts with each part including a number of chapters. The foreward of the book is by William B. Gartner who states that “the book offers a portal into the breadth and depth of entrepreneurship scholarship and provides many avenues for understanding entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurial process” (page ix). Prior to the first part of the book there is an introduction chapter (pp. 1‐11) that discusses how the theme of entrepreneurship has changed overtime. It was very interesting reading this chapter as the author discusses the historical development of the term “entrepreneurship”. The author discusses how in the Middle Ages the French word “entrepreneur” defined a person who did a task. It is surprising to read about the historical developments of entrepreneurship from the French perspective. The author also discusses the American Heritage Dictionary's definition of entrepreneurship as being “a person who organizes, operates, and assumes the risk for a business venture” (p. 3). There is an interesting discussion on how Joseph Schumpeter who worked at Harvard developed further the field of entrepreneurship. The author then positions the book in terms of associating entrepreneurs with the creation of value. There is a section on the chronology and issues of entrepreneurship as a research field and then a useful discussion on the presentation and positioning of the book. Part I of the book is titled “perceptions of entrepreneurship” (pp. 11‐67) and is divided into three chapters. Part I of the book emphasizes how entrepreneurship is a “burning issue” for everyone including teachers, managers, executives, consultants and politicians. Chapter 1 of the book (pp. 14‐29) is titled “entrepreneurship as a social and economic phenomenon”. This chapter is a great resource for understanding the role of job creation and economic growth. Chapter 2 (pp. 29‐49) is titled “entrepreneurship as a field of research”. In this chapter individual‐based and process‐based approaches to entrepreneurship are discussed. Table 2.1 on p. 36 provides a very useful and helpful depiction on how time, the scientific domain and the dominant paradigm has affected the development of entrepreneurship. Chapter 3 (pp. 49‐67) is titled “entrepreneurship as an academic subject”. This chapter is very useful for faculty members who teach entrepreneurship as it provides information on how to define entrepreneurial teaching and then discusses the benefits and objectives of entrepreneurial training. Part II of the book (pp. 67‐115) is titled “entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurial system” and has three chapters. Chapter 4 (pp. 70‐84) is titled “a new perspective to understand entrepreneurship”. This chapter is very analytical and includes a number of figures that are used to describe entrepreneurship in more detail. Chapter 5 (pp. 84‐99) is titled “individual dimension in the I‐NVC dialogic”. This chapter discusses different types of schools of thought within entrepreneurship studies. For example, the great person, psychological characteristics, classic, management, leadership and intrapreneurship schools of thought. Chapter 6 (pp. 99‐115) is titled “new value creation dimension in the I‐NVC dialogic”. This chapter is useful to people with an interest in technology entrepreneurship as it discusses different forms of innovation. Part III of the book (pp. 115‐161) is titled “entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial processes” and includes three chapters. Chapter 7 (pp. 118‐130) is titled “introduction to the concept of entrepreneurial process”. The author highlights how the term “entrepreneurial process” is vague and can be defined in multiple ways. Surprisingly the author makes a great point that entrepreneurship can be applied to the entrepreneurial process such as the energy, mechanical, thermodynamic and biological. Chapter 8 (pp. 130‐146) is titled “the dynamic dimension of the entrepreneurial process”. Table 8.1 on p. 131 provides a good discussion on the process development theories of the entrepreneurial process: life cycle, teleology, dialectic and evolution. Chapter 9 (page 146‐161) is titled “a generic model of the entrepreneurial process”. The author depicts in Figure 9.1 on p. 151 a generic model of the entrepreneurial process and describes what the model means in a step‐by‐step process. Part IV of the book (pp. 161‐211) is titled “entrepreneurial process dynamics” and includes three chapters. Chapter 10 (pp. 164‐177) is titled “entrepreneurial process trigger phase”. In this chapter there is a useful discussion on the theory of planned behavior and how it impacts entrepreneurship. Chapter 11 (pp. 177‐198) is titled “entrepreneurial process commitment phase” and discusses different theoretical perspectives to help understand the notion of commitment in new value creation. Chapter 12 (pp. 198‐211) is titled “entrepreneurial process survival/development phase”. In this chapter the author describes the three issues raised during the entrepreneurial process phase (acquiring necessary resources, building and/or integrating useful networks and configuring and structuring the emerging organization). The conclusion chapter (pp. 211‐218) provides an excellent summary of the book in terms of future research directions. I thought the book was terrific and excellently written. The author has a tremendous amount of knowledge and I am glad he has shared his immense expertise in writing this wonderful book.