Entrepreneurship, Context, Vision and Planning

Citation

van der Sijde, P. (2005), "Entrepreneurship, Context, Vision and Planning", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 39 No. 5/6, pp. 715-716. https://doi.org/10.1108/03090560510590782

Reviewing a textbook always is difficult. Each textbook has its own approach and when someone considers it for classroom use, than you start looking for obvious things. For example, what do the authors consider as a definition of entrepreneurship? “Entrepreneurship is a process of opportunity realization through a creative approach to resource control”. A very interesting definition, but I was surprised to find halfway the book (on page 171). Just to compare: Dollinger (2003) already gives a definition in the first chapter, page 5. The definition which authors use is of the utmost importance, since it gives the vision the authors want to convey to their readers. Legge and Hindle's definition certainly gives their vision and as they write the “book focuses specifically on three critical aspects of entrepreneurship: opportunity screening, revenue forecasting and entrepreneurial business planning (p. 23). Browsing through the book, the first impression is that the book has a logical structure to deal with the topic.

The core of the book consists of six chapters of a rather practical nature culminating in the preparation of the business plan (chapter 11). The authors present in the chapter on the business plan not a how‐to‐do‐it approach – there are hundreds of books in print on this topic and the internet is another source, but a structured approach of what should be in a business plan illustrated with short examples. The student is guided to this chapter via the development of the business idea and opportunity screening (chapter 4), the business model (chapter 5), planning (chapter 6), legal issues (chapter 7) and the financial model (chapter 10). The chapter on the legal issues contain an important expose about the general principles behind intellectual property that in many introductory texts forget, but are important to any entrepreneur. The authors have chosen for an emphasis on planning and finance and not on marketing; together with opportunity screening the authors consider these three topics the critical aspects of entrepreneurship. Marketing receives a minimum attention. Then there are the five “theory chapters”. By the inclusion of these chapters, the authors make it clear that this is a textbook for an academic course on entrepreneurship. In the first chapter, the student is introduced to some of the founding theories of this field. The final chapter (chapter 13) is about new – theoretical – developments. A lot of attention is given to the entrepreneurial fiancial model; it could be argued that for an introductory course, this goes too deep. It is a choice the authors made; personally I would have preferred a larger emphasis on market research and marketing.

The other chapters places entrepreneurship in the societal context (chapter 2) and another discusses the role of governments (chapter 8). An interesting chapter is the one on “entrepreneurs and cycles” (chapter 3). It is interesting to note that throughout the book there is a focus on the entrepreneur and the entreprise (micro level), while only in chapter 8 the focus shifts to the macro level – the government. I challenge the authors to deal with the macro (government) level from the micro (enterprise) level perspective in the next version of their book!

The book contains two chapters that I consider as “extra”. Both chapters are well written and provide good and useful information on their topics, but the chapter on corporate entrepreneurship (chapter 9) does not fit into the concept of the book. Although the authors see intrapreneurs as their target group and this is the chapter that should convince them to study this book – I do not agree with the authors. Corporate entrepreneurship is, of course, part of the entrepreneurship concept, but it does not fit. The chapter on investment and investors, again, well written and good information, but touches only on some topics that need to be dealt with in more detail, while others could easily been included in the chapter on finance (chapter 10).

In chapter 13, the authors describe the “ideal” profile of the entrepreneurship professor: she is a serial entrepreneur of international prominence, who had time to complete an award‐winning PhD thesis on entrepreneurship at an acclaimed, American university. She has several years of teaching experience and a number of publications in peer‐reviewed A‐grade journals, etc. This is a tongue‐in‐cheek profile, but it has many truths in it! Of course, as the authors state, this is a myth, but sometimes I feel that many universities are looking for these kind of professors.

This is not a book about marketing. Many teachers and researchers consider that marketing and entrepreneurship are closely related, the focus in this book is on opportunity screening, fiance and planning. Marketing topics are woven all through the book. The book provides a good and interesting introduction to entrepreneurship (bachelor or early master level courses). It sketches a coherent picture. It is both theoretical and practical enough to include in an introductory course that aims (amongst others) to teach the students to write a well‐founded business plan. There also is a web site with accompanying materials (student workbook, teaching guide, PP‐slides) to assist the teacher. I don't think this is a book for entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs; it is not a how‐to‐do‐it in five days book; there are more practical books available for that purpose.

In conclusion: the book provides an interesting introduction to entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is placed in a (societal and economic) context and many basic concepts are discussed. Opportinuty screening, entrepreneurial planning and entrepreneurial finance are the central concepts of the book. If you are updating your introductory course on entrepreneurship and looking for another textbook, this is definitely one to have a look at. A final point: the subtitle of the book contains a very intriguing word “vision”, and after reading and browsing through the book I could not find what the authors meant by “vision”.