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The Systematic Search for Entrepreneurial Discoveries
(Click to Enlarge)
James O. Fiet
ISBN: 1-56720-255-1
ISBN-13: 978-1-56720-255-7
256 pages
Praeger Publishers
Publication: 7/30/2002
List Price: $102.95 (UK Sterling Price: £71.95)
Availability: Print on demand
Media Type: Hardcover
Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Subjects:
Description: Entrepreneurs do much more than manage small businesses. At the heart of entrepreneurship is the discovery process. An idea is conceived and then exploited for profit. But if the idea is neither useful nor unique, its exploitation will generate only average profits. Therefore, the idea and the process that leads to its discovery are of the utmost importance to the success of any new venture. Can the discovery process be taught, or must one be born with the talent to unearth promising opportunities? Fiet argues that entrepreneurial discovery can indeed be taught, and he proposes a theory of the informational elements that constitute the discovery process.

Entrepreneurship as an academic discipline has often been criticized for lacking intellectual rigor and a theoretical foundation. Fiet supplies both in this scholarly book, which approaches entrepreneurial competence from an academic perspective. There are three primary characteristics of entrepreneurial competence: tacit knowledge of an entrepreneur's field of endeavor, which can be improved by trial and error; the knowledge of decision rules that enable one to make rational informational investments based upon the signals of opportunities; and the unequal distribution of entrpreneurial competence among the population. Recognizing that entrepreneurs start out at different stages of competence, Fiet asserts that anyone cam improve using his book as a pedagogical aid. This volume fills a void in the entrepreneurship literature, which too often is indistinguishable from that which informs courses on small business management.
Table of Contents:
  • The Essential Role of Discovery in Entrepreneurship
    Toward a Theory of Entrepreneurship
    The Informational Economics of Discovery
    The Impact of Competitive Structure on Discovery
    Entrepreneurial Competence as Knowledge
    Deciding How Entrepreneurs Can Search for Discoveries
    Discovery as Either the Result of Accidental Alertness or Systematic Search
    The Promise of Systematic Search for Aspiring Entrepreneurs
    The Pedagogy of Entrepreneurship Theory
    Opportunities for Future Research
    Index
About the Author: JAMES O. FIET is Brown-Forman Chair in Entrepreneurship and Professor of Management at the University of Louisville.
LCC Class: 658
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