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First Published in 1990. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Schumpeter proclaims in this classical analysis of capitalist society first published in 1911 that economics is a natural self-regulating mechanism when undisturbed by "social and other meddlers." In his preface he argues that despite weaknesses, theories are based on logic and provide structure for understanding fact. Of those who argue against him, Schumpeter asks a fundamental question: "Is it really artificial to keep separate the phenomena incidental to running a firm and the phenomena incidental to creating a new one?" In his answers, Schumpeter offers guidance to Third World politicians no less than First World businesspeople. In his substantial new introduction, John E. Elliott discusses the salient ideas of The Theory of Economic Development against the historical background of three great periods of economic thought in the last two decades.

In this paper, we utilize decomposition methods to document the extent and drivers of the performance gap in Malawi between firms with a female owner and firms with a male owner. We find that, on average, male-owned businesses in Malawi earn profits more than double (120%) those of female-owned businesses. We use Kitagawa-Oaxaca-Blinder (KOB) mean-decomposition techniques and recentered influence function (RIF) regressions applied along the earnings distribution, coupled with data from a novel multi-topic household survey rich in details about entrepreneurship, to identify what proportion of the gender gap in business profits can be attributed to: (i) differences in average characteristics of profit-generating factors (composition effect) and (ii) gender differences in the returns to these factors (structure effect). We find that 59.8% of the mean gender gap is explained by gender differences in the levels of observable attributes, with the remaining 40.2% attributable to the lower returns to observable attributes obtained by female owners, i.e., female structural disadvantage. The composition effect is primarily driven by female owners’ role as the primary caregiver in most households and a lack of capital. The female structural disadvantage can largely be attributed to female owners’ heightened perception of sexual hostility in the work environment and non-cognitive skills related to entrepreneurship (perseverance in challenging tasks and environments, optimism, and passion for work). When looking along the distribution, capital stock appears to be a primary driver of the composition effect except in the bottom quintile of firms. In contrast, caregiving responsibilities are a driver of the composition effect in the bottom three quintiles only. Differences in the returns to capital appear to be a very significant driver of the female structural disadvantage in the bottom quintile.

Entrepreneurship is not a calling only for the selected few. Creative work and economic self-realization are goals that anyone can pursue. Learn how to create your own 'idea-masterpiece' as a collage or puzzle made from existing pieces, and construct your own company from pre-existing components that are freely available to everyone. Brains versus Capital: Entrepreneurship for Everyone opens up many channels of opportunity for many people who never thought that they would start their own company. This book emphasizes knowledge-based start-ups, which offers a crucial difference to classic self-employment and the new technology based start-ups. Günter Faltin has been teaching this approach for decades, and he has applied his theoretical concept with great success to 'The Tea Campaign' (Teekampagne), the largest mail-order tea company in Germany. A growing number of companies uses Professor Faltin's principles successfully. Featuring practical examples of successful companies, Günter Faltin shows how anyone can refine an idea to create a new company. By combining components that already exist, a small start-up founder could even challenge the big companies.

Are profits and sustainability compatible? This book brings unique perspectives to this key debate by exploring the history of green entrepreneurship since the nineteenth century, and its spread globally in industries including renewable energy, organic food, natural beauty, ecotourism, recycling, architecture, and finance. The book uses the lens of the extraordinary and often eccentric men and women who defied convention and imagined that business could help save the planet, rather than consume it. The social and religious beliefs that drove many of these individuals are explored as the book looks at how they overcame huge obstacles to execute their strategies. The green entrepreneurs seen here are shown to have created new markets and industries, and driven innovations in sustainable practices, even at times when most consumers and governments marginalized the entire subject. The struggles of early pioneers appear to have been rewarded by the growth of environmental awareness among consumers, business leaders, and others in recent years, but the Earth's environmental health continues to deteriorate. If profits and sustainability have proved challenging to reconcile, the book argues that one reason was how they were both defined.

First published 1939.

A timeless classic of economic theory that remains fascinating and pertinent today, this is Frank Knight's famous explanation of why perfect competition cannot eliminate profits, the important differences between "risk" and "uncertainty," and the vital role of the entrepreneur in profitmaking. Based on Knight's PhD dissertation, this 1921 work, balancing theory with fact to come to stunning insights, is a distinct pleasure to read. FRANK H. KNIGHT (1885-1972) is considered by some the greatest American scholar of economics of the 20th century. An economics professor at the University of Chicago from 1927 until 1955, he was one of the founders of the Chicago school of economics, which influenced Milton Friedman and George Stigler.

Re-focus your business plan and achieve the success your business deserves Business owners, and their teams, often lose their way in the midst of the day-to-day stress of generating sales and profits. Whether your goal is selling millions of your product, expanding operations to a new location, or generating more profits, Start at the End offers a unique approach and action steps for business owners and entrepreneurs to redevelop your business plan and achieve ultimate success. You'll learn how to re-create your long-term vision and then make continuous progress in achieving that vision while continuing to hit your short-term goals. Start at the End offers inspiring stories of other entrepreneurs who have achieved significant success in this area, as well as easy-to-follow exercises and next steps. Shows how to develop a realistic business and financial model based on market data Explains how to identify and pursue new opportunities, raise capital, and build growth strategies Start at the End gives business owners a chance to take a step back, re-evaluate your business, and redesign your business plan to achieve the success you dreamed of when you first launched your company.

Entrepreneurial finance is a discipline that studies financial resource mobilization, resource allocation, risk moderation, optimization in financial contracting, value creation, and value monetization within the context of entrepreneurship. However, without proper strategic consideration the discipline is incomplete. This book examines how the activity of entrepreneurial finance can be enhanced via a concentration on value creation and through improved strategic decision-making. The most unique feature of the book is its focus on value creation. For entrepreneurs, value creation is not a one-off activity, but rather a continuous cycle of incremental improvements across a wide range of business activities. Entrepreneurial value creation is described in four comprehensive stages: value creation, value measurement, value enhancement, and value realization, referred to as the C-MER model. This book focuses on what creates value rather than merely presenting value creation in a straight accounting framework. At the same time, deliberate and tactical planning and implementation ensure that the firm does not ignore the components necessary for it to survive and flourish.Vigorous strategic deliberations maximize the entrepreneurial firm’s chances of making the right business decisions for the future, enable the firm to manage its available financial and non-financial resources in the most optimal manner, ensure that the necessary capital is secured to progress the development of the firm to its desired development level, and build value. While financial considerations are important, the field of strategic entrepreneurial finance represents a fusion of three disciplines: strategic management, financial management, and entrepreneurship. This orientation represents a natural evolution of scholarship to combine specific domains and paradigms of naturally connected business disciplines and reflects the need to simultaneously examine business topics from different perspectives which may better encapsulate actual entrepreneurial practices.