Systemic Entrepreneurship ― Contemporary Issues and Case Studies

The importance of entrepreneurship creating and supporting socio-economic growth is not a new concept and generally accepted by most nations as an important part of their development strategies. It is postulated that entrepreneurship will grow in importance in future because of accelerated support entrepreneurs are receiving worldwide. In terms of the latter, a plethora of initiatives exist supporting entrepreneurs but despite this seemingly plethora of support services the global economy is still struggling to survive the recession of 2009. There is no doubt that a new approach to the development of sustainable entrepreneurship is required – a systemic approach is needed that is more heuristic and holistic in nature to accommodate both individualistic and societal approaches in the promotion of entrepreneurship. More of the same seems not to be working. A heuristic and holistic way of investigating is called for discovering the optimum process of supporting socio-economic development in the current and future global context.

Systemic Entrepreneurship focuses on creating an awareness of systemic entrepreneurship and illustrates the fact that one needs to approach entrepreneurial support activities from many different angles.

Gideon Maas is the Director of the Futures Entrepreneurship Centre and Professor of Entrepreneurship at Plymouth University, UK. Gideon has broad international business and academic experiences in various countries such as China, Europe and Africa. His research focus and experiences are in entrepreneurship, open innovation, growth strategies, entrepreneurial universities, implementation of entrepreneurial systems and family businesses.

Paul Jones is Deputy Director at the Futures Entrepreneurship Centre in Plymouth University and a Reader in Entrepreneurship. He is an active researcher with over 150 outputs in academic journals, book chapters and conference papers. He is also Editor-in-Chief of the International journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Research and Associate Editor of the International Journal of Management Education. Paul sits on the Board of Trustees of the Institute of Small Business and Entrepreneurship.