This welcome new guide to the world of entrepreneurship offers invaluable lessons for the student and the practical entrepreneur alike. For the student it breathes fresh life into the standard curriculum topics, analyzing them in the context of a wide range of current real-world examples. For business practitioners it shows how practical success is influenced by factors such as industry dynamics, entry barriers, reconfiguration, and core competence.

Taking the reader through a variety of examples, mainly from smaller and/or newer companies in Britain and the USA, Enterprise in Action gives clear accounts of concepts and processes so that anyone can 'come on board'. Above all it provides a plausible 'action sequence' played out through the 11 chapters, showing the positioning and behaviour likely to lead to success.

Students will gain insights into key issues such as: What gives rise to entrepreneurial opportunity? How it is possible to exploit trends, and what are these trends? What is the role of innovation/originality? How do companies get started and become self-sustaining? What is 'execution', does it differ from implementation, and what is its role in business success? What do established SMEs (small and medium sized companies) do to survive in the middle term, and even across family generations?

Enterprise in Action illuminates the dynamics of enterprise creation and the development of SMEs over time, shedding important light on 'what seems to work' and what favours success over the long term in a volatile business environment.