In the foreword, Pradip N. Khandwalla, the series editor, states that “One great resource many Third World societies can tap to lift themselves by their bootstraps is entrepreneurship”. The priority of the socio‐economic transformation of the world’s poor societies was initially explored at an International conference held in Ahmedabad, India, in 1986 and this led to the book series of which this book is part. The idea of the series followed on from the publication of the proceedings in book form in 1988 with an overall objective of helping to refocus research perspectives of organizational and behavioural scientists, but especially those from the third world. This book seeks to meet the needs by presenting a number of alternative models based on systematic observation of social scientists who work in the area of entrepreneurship, including a number who focus on innovation. The editor, Rabindra N. Kanungo, explains that the interventions which have taken place in the community are “not based on the systematic observation and research into the process through which entrepreneurship emerges and sustains itself”. Therefore, the book sets out to develop “comprehensive research‐based models of entrepreneurship in the context of development for enhancing our understanding and for practical guidance”. Most of the chapters in the book are based on secondary research and analysis of aspects of entrepreneurship theories and this is supported by empirical research in seven out of the 17 chapters.
Geographically, the work focuses on India. There is no indication for whom, other than Indian policy makers and social scientists researching in the field, this book is intended. However, a lot of useful research is included in the contents, and although it may have most impact on those studying problems and issues in the Third World, I believe that it would also be useful for post‐graduates studying entrepreneurship.
The book has been divided into four parts which range from conceptual models of entrepreneurship through to management skills in business. Most of the chapters were originally conference papers delivered either at the centre for management development (CMD) Triviandrum, or the international society for the study of work and organisation values (ISSWOV), Montreal. Five other chapters have been added. (2, 5, 7, 14, and 15)
The first part of the book contains five chapters featuring conceptual models which aim to provide a multidisciplinary perspective on entrepreneurship and innovation. In part 2, which also consists of five chapters, the focus moves on to entrepreneurs. Two of the chapters deal with models of entrepreneurial intention and motivation in enterprise creation and growth. Another two chapters deal with women’s issues in entrepreneurship, featuring problems and prospects for women and the final chapter investigates ethical issues involving entrepreneurs. The third part moves the focus away from the individual to investigation of small scale and rural enterprises and the four chapters contain work on third‐sector organisations, such as co‐operatives. Innovation and the competitiveness of small firms in developing countries feature in the last two chapters of part three. The final part of the book looks at management skills which are needed in starting and sustaining entrepreneurship and businesses and the three chapters deal with banking, marketing, and management skills in rural enterprises.
The following brief descriptions of some key chapters from each part of the book gives some indication of the content. The book begins with a paper written by Suresh Balakrishnan, K. Gopakumar, and Rabindra N. Kanungo and titled “Entrepreneurship development: concept and context”. This chapter sets out to contain a conceptual analysis of entrepreneurship beginning with a glimpse of theoretical approaches made over time and across disciplines. It then moves on to describe a paradigm shift where the entrepreneur is recaptured into a pragmatic mode. In so doing it explains the development of entrepreneurial potential. It contains four key themes:
- 1
“Evolution frontiers divergence and stagnation”, traces the evolution of the concept;
- 2
sets out to give an overview of “alternative approaches” in helping to conceptualise the concept;
- 3
examines contemporary focus against exploring the trait approach and demographic approach to explain the concept of entrepreneurship; and
- 4
“Entrepreneurship: an integrative behavioural framework”, explores in some detail the behavioural aspects of the entrepreneur, including entrepreneurship and leadership.
This could be a very useful contribution to those policy makers and students who wish to have an introduction to the topic of entrepreneurship in general. However, although the literature cited is very good and used well, I felt that the conclusions were weak and could have been linked with the title of the text more closely.
The second part of the text features models and descriptions of entrepreneurs, including their psychological motivation and characteristics featuring work by John Hartwick (McGill University), and by Mathew Manimala and Alan W. Pearson (MBS). Manimala and Pearson’s research paper, “Entrepreneurial motivation revisited” gives background on entrepreneurial motivation and the findings from a study of 1,000 questionnaires which gave 90 useful responses. The chapter concentrates on how the entrepreneurial individuals’ characterisation of achievement motivation has been measured by projective techniques such as the thematic apperception tests (TAT). This chapter links with chapter 4 in that it states that “the debate on whether entrepreneur related factors are more or less important than environmental contingency factors in enterprise creation remains inconclusive”. The chapter contains a factor analysis table of work motives, details of variables and loadings. The chapter concludes with a number of key points including ‘need for achievement as a part of the entrepreneurs need for realising oneself through work and developing one’s full potential. What is traditionally designated as ego needs seem to be a combination of two motives, namely the power motive and the status motive. The conclusions comprise of a number of thought provoking statements which raise awareness of the reader and could lead to further useful research.
Part 2 also features two interesting research articles on women and entrepreneurship. The first of these (chapter 8) is by Ratna Ghosh, Meenakshi Gupta, and S. Nina Dhar and the position of women in India illustrates a complex diversity because of aspects such as regional cultural and religious differences ‐ also socio‐economic disparities. The study reported in this paper took place in the State of Kerala. The chapter focuses on six case studies which supplemented quantitative data from a larger study. Findings from the study indicate that women are able to take risk and successfully resolve the conflicts which arise in their personal, family and entrepreneurial roles. They may however seek motivational support from family and friends ‐ especially males. This chapter was weak on conclusions. The other piece featuring women follows (chapter 9) and is titled “Microenterprise management by women in India” by K. Chandralekha, W. Kalyani and Dina Lavoie. The authors state that “developing entrepreneurial capability and putting it into optimum use are major problems faced by a majority of women entrepreneurs”. The chapter explains the nature of problems faced by women entrepreneurs over a two year period conducted in Rayalaseema, one of the three regions of Andhrapradesh, a south eastern state of India. The size of the sample was 300 women with 150 from each of two centres and an enterprise involvement score index as a score system was used, coupled with eight case studies. The chapter contains a model for survey research on women entrepreneurs and the case study research on women entrepreneurs. Analysis of the study is presented in the paper, including the management skills recognised by the respondents. The chapter also contains brief notes on the eight case studies. A key conclusion from the study is that “although women business owners enjoy greater visibility now than in previous times, their efforts are hindered by their overall status in society”. Issues for management training needs identified from the study are summed as the four Cs ‐ confidence building, competence, connections and capital.
Part 3 focuses on enterprise and features innovation in two chapters. Chapter 13, “Building organisational capacities for product innovation” by Alan O’Sullivan, Kamal Munir and Deborah Dougherty debates a number of key issues in the importance and role of innovation in society and they develop the argument that, “for industrial regeneration and competitiveness, social innovation matters more than technical innovation”. In contrast, the next paper, “Technological innovation in SMEs in Pakistan” by Wasif M. Khan features a small study of eight companies involved in technological innovation. The chapter includes a useful framework for technological innovation in SMEs based on environmental factors, driving factors for innovation and the implementation of innovation. The study of eight SMEs, includes a table of SME profiles. Key findings include: technological entrepreneurs with ideas recognise limited opportunities and exploit them; successful innovation starts with a clearly identified product need and a reachable customer: networking is used extensively; and the results of innovative efforts achieved at great cost and personal risk helped to establish the credibility of the firm and provide impetus for seeking further technical change.
The last part of the book, broadly focusing on management skill needs, looks at marketing for SMEs (chapter 16 by V. Sanal Kumar), rural enterprises (chapter 17 by K. Gopakumar), and the change in banking services. This topic, “Culture and competence: banking services to SMEs in India” by Shailendra Vyakarnam and S. Raghunath is written directly and has clear messages for the banking world and how policy makers can institute enterprise creation and growth when dealing with small firms ‐ which is a real challenge. The study featured bankers at two conferences. Conclusions include that bankers need to understand small business customers’ needs more thoroughly; and bankers need to be able to improve their ability to build and manage relationships in order to manage counter staff. The nature and presentation of this pragmatic paper means that the reference list is very short.
Summary
This text combines useful theoretical work with interesting models in entrepreneurship and innovation. Good practical examples of primary research are coupled with secondary material which would prove of use to policy makers and students alike. The topics addressed in the text include the traits of the entrepreneur which may, in some instances, be capable of being encouraged by the infrastructure provided by the policy makers, thus coupling theory with practice. Useful social issues are also included, such as women in entrepreneurship and the nature of support organisations within an entrepreneurial culture.
The text weaknesses include lack of definition for the target market. Some of the theoretical papers may not be of as much use to policy makers as those chapters which contain empirical work ‐ which illustrate entrepreneurship in practice. The wide variety of papers from the conference source covers much of entrepreneurial theory but little regarding innovation is included in the text, thus the title “Entrepreneurship and innovation” may not be appropriate and I would like to have seen more empirical work included in the text. Perhaps because of the nature of the original papers, in a few instances conclusions are weak and thus would not aid those identified in the target market. Finally, the material presented is not brought together in a concluding chapter and I believe that this would be useful to summarise the main theoretical and practical lessons from the work included in the book. On balance, however, I believe that the text would be very useful in broaching the issues in developing nations’ entrepreneurship and has much to offer interested parties. I would certainly recommend this text on the wider reference material for postgraduate programmes.
