Introduction

Abstract

Moving from the received state of the art, this book presents and discusses a variety of attractive recent developments and achievements in entrepreneurship research. In more detail, it makes a systematic analysis of both theory and practice associated with the current evolving contours of “strategic entrepreneurship” intended as a new tradition in management and a field of study per se. This book intentionally encompasses four distinct domains: the nurturing of governance mechanisms and arrangements, the mobilization of capital, the activation of learning and innovation loops, and the role of open innovation in new entrepreneurial organizations.

Research on entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial processes has met greatest success at the dawn of this new millennium, stretching its frontiers from a peripheral subfield of management studies into one of the most relevant spheres of strategic management. Coined roughly a decade ago, the term “strategic entrepreneurship” joins together the insights of both entrepreneurship and strategic management and explores the overlap between the two (Hitt et al. 2001).