Written from a variety of perspectives, and utilising diverse methodological approaches, Entrepreneurship, Sustainable Growth and Performance: Frontiers in European Entrepreneurship Research aims to bring together some of Europe's most prominent entrepreneurship scholars and provide an overview of contemporary European research in this field. The book focuses on four main themes which encompass the most popular dimensions of current entrepreneurship research. The first theme focuses on the individual entrepreneur who plays a central role in creating and sustaining new ventures and the studies reported range from determining entrepreneurial trait and cognitive characteristics to exploring entrepreneur's motives for financial bootstrapping in new businesses. Entrepreneurship is then examined in the context of family businesses where ownership is controlled by a family unit, with family members often involved in management activities. Attention is directed here to: transgenerational entrepreneurship in family firms; financing and growth behaviour of family firms and; the links between family orientation, strategy and innovation. Following this, the theme of new venture performance is investigated through assessing the impact of team foundations, human capital and entrepreneurial and market orientations on an organization's growth and performance. The final theme foregrounds entrepreneurial processes and explores how entrepreneurs manage the external environment in which both they and their venture are embedded. Particular issues dealt with include: organising in the face of natural catastrophes; the role of academic staff in developing a business based on research results; the opportunities of digitization of marketing and selling activities; and reconfiguring a resource base through dynamic capabilities. This collection of papers is intended to be a valuable resource not only for researchers and students, but also consultants and policymakers with an interest in entrepreneurship and small business.
Collectively, the authors present an informative overview of some of the best European research in entrepreneurship that exists at present. In addition, the variation in research traditions and approaches offer the reader an interesting insight into the various disciplinary perspectives that can shed light on entrepreneurial activities, including insights from psychology, sociology, finance and strategy. The attempt to examine both individual and firm‐level analysis is also a strength of this book, given that the majority of entrepreneurship research tends to focus on just one of these streams and there is a dearth of work that is able to integrate and understand both dimensions simultaneously. However, the major strengths of this book also lead to its main weakness. While the book does fulfil its remit to cover a diverse number of topics as outlined above, by attending to such a variety of subjects in one collection, the book cannot do justice to all of them. Given that the chapters are drawn from the best papers presented at the 20th edition of the RENT conference it is likely that the editors exercised retrospective sensemaking in trying to segment these papers upon meaningful lines of differentiation. Even among the four separate themes the topics covered are highly diverse and do not always work well together. Much is made of the studies' European heritage and the unique and diverse insights that European research offers; however, with a few exceptions (such as Bengt Johanisson and Lena Olaison's chapter on creative organizing) the studies presented here did not appear to be particularly “European” (aside from the context) and a quick scan through any North American entrepreneurship journal will reveal that these topics are also examined in a similar manner by American researchers.
There is, however, some admission to, and discussion of, these problems within the text, particularly the issues European researchers face in relation to North American hegemony in entrepreneurship research and how we can usefully distinguish ourselves from our American colleagues. In attempting to explore these problems further the book begins with a retrospective examination by Per Davidsson of what we have learned from the past twenty years of entrepreneurship research and an assessment of the future challenges of European research. The remainder of the book is divided into four key sections as detailed above: entrepreneurs and their role in entrepreneurship; entrepreneurship in family firms; performance of new ventures; and processes and entrepreneurship. Overall the papers presented in this collection offer a fascinating and comprehensive insight into the present position of entrepreneurship research in a European context. Given the number of topics covered its length is quite substantial (365 pages), however, it is also highly priced. As such, the book provides value for money for those for whom entrepreneurship research within a European context is a particular interest. For those who want to expand their knowledge of more general and current up‐to‐date understandings of entrepreneurial phenomenon, there may be more appropriate texts.
