INTRODUCTION

Abstract

Entrepreneurship is essential for the growth of both individual firms and overall economies. Through the creativity entrepreneurship fosters, new products, processes, and organizations emerge. Entrepreneurship provides the necessary flexibility and dynamism for responding to new market opportunities and challenges. Accordingly, it is important to understand entrepreneurship – how it takes place, the characteristics of entrepreneurs, the factors that encourage or discourage it, and how it differs across countries. Fortunately, research on entrepreneurship is active across the social sciences. This volume presents a collection of chapters that report on recent studies across a variety of areas, and the material reflects the vibrancy of both this emerging field of study and its subject area – entrepreneurship.