The Systematic Search for Entrepreneurial Discoveries

(Hardback)

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Explains the theory, based on informational economics, of entrepreneurial discovery, and demonstrates the controversial proposition that the discovery process can be taught. Entrepreneurs do much more than manage small businesses. At the heart of entrepreneurship is the discovery process. An idea is conceived and then exploited for profit. But if the idea is neither useful nor unique, its exploitation will generate only average profits. Therefore, the idea and the process that leads to its discovery are of the utmost importance to the success of any new venture. Can the discovery process be taught, or must one be born with the talent to unearth promising opportunities Fiet argues that entrepreneurial discovery can indeed be taught, and he proposes a theory of the informational elements that constitute the discovery process. Entrepreneurship as an academic discipline has often been critized for lacking intellectual rigor and a theoretical foundation. Fiet supplies both in this scholarly book, which approaches entrepreneurial competence from an academic perspective. There are three primary characteristics of entrepreneurial competence: tacit knowledge of an entrepreneur's field of endeavor, which can be improved by trial and error; the knowledge of decision rules that enable one to make rational informational investments based upon the signals of opportunities; and the unequal distribution of entrpreneurial competence among the population. Recognizing that entrepreneurs start out at different stages of competence, Fiet asserts that anyone cam improve using his book as a pedagogical aid. This volume fills a void in the entrepreneurship literature, which too often is indistinguishable from that which informs courses on small business management.

Reviews

"Many entrepreneurs fail. Among the successful ones, the success is sometimes due to luck. For these reasons, sound advice to aspiring entrepreneurs cannot be based solely on descriptions of what practicing entrepreneurs do. Based on this insight, Fiet takes on the task of developing instead theory about what entrepreneurs should do. The result is an important book with potential for widespread classroom use--and possibly for re-directing the focus of entrepreneurship research." Per Davidsson, Professor of Entrepreneurship, The Jonkoping International Business School, Sweden

Author Bio

JAMES O. FIET is Brown-Forman Chair in Entrepreneurship and Professor of Management at the University of Louisville in Kentucky.