Sencbcc.org - Loans, Finance, Real Estate and Small Business |
|
|
 | | | |
| The Illusions of Entrepreneurship: The Costly Myths That Entrepreneurs, Investors, and Policy Makers Live By | 
 enlarge | Author: Scott A. Shane
Publisher: Yale University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $26.00
Buy New: $15.00
You Save: $11.00 (42%)
Buy New/Used from $14.25
Avg. Customer Rating:  (38 reviews)
Sales Rank: 32044
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6 x 0.9
ISBN: 0300113315
Dewey Decimal Number: 658.11
EAN: 9780300113310
ASIN: 0300113315
Publication Date: January 28, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
|
| Customer Reviews:
Why do people start businesses? May 6, 2008
Why do people start businesses? Why doesn't the high failure rate dampen their enthusiasm? "The Illusions of Entrepreneurship: The Costly Myths That Entrepreneurs, Investors, and Policy Makers Live By" is an examination of modern entrepreneurship and what makes it all tick. Taking a good, long look at the reality of it all, "The Illusion of Entrepreneurship : The Costly Myths That Entrepreneurs, Investors, and Policy Makers Live By" takes into account the industries that are popular for start up, how they are financed, the characteristics of an entrepreneur, and strategies for new businesses to survive when they first start. Scholarly written and researched, "The Illusion of Entrepreneurship: The Costly Myths that Entrepreneurs, Investors, and Policy Makers Live By" is highly recommended for any community library collection with an interest in economics and business, and should be required reading for any aspiring entrepreneur.
Believe or not, we study entrepreneurship, but much of our implicit belief about entrepreneurship turned out to be wrong May 4, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I was drawn to this book when Dr. Shane gave us a quiz about the FACTS of entrepreneurship. Believe it or not, although many of us might have thought we were savvy in entrepreneurship, we got almost none of the questions correct. After that, I placed a pre-order for this book and waited for months before this book was first in print and available. It was quite a worthwhile.
What we got wrong? If you read the book you will understand why many of us got them wrong. His data (much of them from public sources) basically strikes you like this:
* Can you believe the most entrepreneurial state in the US is not California, nor Massachusetts, but Vermont?
* Can you believe U.S. is not the most entrepreneurial country in the word, but instead three times less entrepreneurial than the top country? (The book uses various measures of entrepreneurial activities)
...
This long list of debuted myths are summarized in the end of each chapter.
Most important, each chapter explains WHY the myths turn out to be wrong. Without these explanations, the book would become simply a stack of striking facts that you found hard to believe. What makes this book highly insightful and convincing is that the author not only points out what is the truth based on reliable data, but also tells us why the surprising truth makes sense.
Certainly, to buy in his points, you need to first buy in how the author defines entrepreneurship--starting a new (for-profit) organization, including self-employment, etc. This is a fair definition in the research on entrepreneurship.
If you teach entrepreneurship or related courses, the book will be a perfect tool for you to draw students' interest. Students become more involved and learn more when their stereotype mental model is challenged with a sound reason.
One more thing to note: The author has a notable merit across his writings: clear, and easy to follow. This book is of no exception. You can easily grab what he wants to say in this book even when you read it when traveling on a plane or before going to bed.
great book for entrepreneurs, investors, policy makers and researchers May 2, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is an OUTSTANDING book that should be very useful to entrepreneurs, researchers and policy makers.
The author is one of the most respected scholars in entrepreneurship. He uses a lot of research papers and industry reports to present the facts and bust the "myths" about entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs.
The book has ten chapters with a total of 67 busted myths. Chapters 2 and 7 should be very useful to entrepreneurs. Chapter 2 tells us that industry selection matters in starting a business. Unfortunately, entrepreneurs select industries that they know better and in which it is easy to start businesses. Further, most entrepreneurs don't select the most profitable industries but instead pick industries with the highest firm failure rates. Chapter 7 tells us that success depends on more important factors than entrepreneur personality or psychological traits.
The book raises some serious questions about conventional wisdoms. Here are two examples:
Concerning the typical entrepreneur, "The characteristics that make people more likely to start businesses aren't all desirable; people are more likely to go into business for themselves if they are unemployed, work part-time, have changed jobs often, and make less money. The typical entrepreneur earns less money than he would have earned had he worked for someone else and has worse job benefits."
Concerning government policy to promote entrepreneurship, "We have no evidence that in the absence of government intervention, people were creating too few businesses or that without government action the wrong firms would get started or financed. Moreover, we have no evidence that creating additional new companies is a good thing. ... there is ample evidence that when governments intervene to encourage the creation of new businesses, they stimulate people to start new companies disproportionately in competitive industries with lower barriers to entry and high rates of failure."
I find the book interesting and entertaining. It is well-written and easy-to-follow, without unnecessary academic jargons. I would highly recommend the book to anyone who is serious about entrepreneurship.
Doses of entrepreneur reality April 20, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I took two major lessons, and provide a suggestion, from Scott Shane's "Illusions of Entrepreneurship":
First, "Start your business for the right reasons," is a key issue that Shane notes, and it's an issue that can help ground potential entrepreneurs in reality. This book provides a portrait of entrepreneurs that is refreshing to read, noting that the romanticized view of being an entrepreneur is something much different than the "as is" state. People who are good "craftsmen", even in an unglamorous field, will feel good about going it alone after reading his book.
Second, I suggest that this book comes at an important time in our nation's business history. With the concerns about how innovative and entrepreneurial we are as a nation, and what that may mean to our future economic development, this book helps de-bunk stultifying myths about pursuing an entrepreneurial career. That can only help us.
Third, my suggestion: Not only will people who want to be entrepreneurs benefit from the objective analysis in this book, but policy-makers would do well to be steeped in the reality of entrepreneurism presented here. Maybe they will think about how to clear a road for new enterprise formation versus bureaucratically impede business success.
Myth buster indeed! April 18, 2008
For those familiar with Scott Shane's academic articles, this book does offer a comforting familiarity to Scott Shane's straight-to-the-point and easy-to-read writing style. He wrote this book with the customers in mind and truly he wants to give us the essential truth in a simple way, not simpler. I find that very refreshing.
Going into the content, indeed he busted many prominent myths for which the word 'facts' probably more appropriate. I am tempted to go into the details and list the many important myths proven to be counterintuitive, but the task is easier said than done for every single busted myth is so mind-changing. I will be quick to say that this book is a must for any party interested in entrepreneurship-related activities. Making comments before reading this book could make one look naive. To me, that is high praise for Scott Shane and this book.
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| | |
|