Exploring Entrepreneurship 2nd Edition Richard Blundel, Nigel Lockett, Catherine Wang - Solutions

Unlock a world of entrepreneurial knowledge with our comprehensive solutions to "Exploring Entrepreneurship 2nd Edition" by Richard Blundel, Nigel Lockett, and Catherine Wang. Dive into a treasure trove of resources including an exclusive online answers key, a meticulously crafted solution manual, and a detailed solutions PDF. With solved problems and step-by-step answers, our instructor manual guides you through each chapter, making learning a breeze. Enhance your preparation with our test bank and textbook solutions, available for free download. Discover the answers to all your questions and elevate your understanding of entrepreneurship.

Which particular topic within entrepreneurial learning do you think is worthwhile to pursue as a dissertation topic? How can you approach the topic? What methodology do you plan to use?What would be the implications of this dissertation topic for entrepreneurs?
How is entrepreneurial learning different in a classroom compared to in a real-life business venture? What have you learned in your entrepreneurial education? What can you do to accelerate your own personal development, and prepare yourself for an entrepreneurial career?
What are the key challenges for entrepreneurs and their new ventures to cope with the demand of multiple learning processes and styles? How easy or difficult is it to learn from success and failure? Can you discuss a few strategies to learn from success and failure?
Reflection on your own learning styles: Evaluate your own learning styles, relating to the different learning styles discussed in this chapter. How do you learn effectively? What have you learned from the entrepreneurs mentioned in this chapter? Who is your entrepreneurial role model? How does this
Entrepreneurial learning in practice: Review each of the cases in the chapter and each of the video cases on the website to identify the key learning styles and processes as discussed in this chapter.What did the entrepreneurs learn? How did they learn: similarly or differently?
What policy means to me: Take one of the following roles and discuss how the policies discussed in this chapter might apply to you: (a) an existing entrepreneur, considering how best to develop her/his business; (b) a prospective entrepreneur, deciding whether to move out of regular employment and
The challenges of enterprise policy: The articles by Blackburn and Ram (2006) and Carter et al. (2015) highlight a number of challenges for policy-makers who are seeking to use enterprise policies to combat social exclusion and promote diversity(Section 15.5): (a) Summarise the challenges
Promoting technological innovation: The research evidence suggests a number of different views on how best to promote technological innovation. Compare, for example, Hendry and Brown’s (2006) research on opto-electronics technology firms and Henry and Pinch’s (2000) findings on motor-sport
On the receiving end: Find out what real-life entrepreneurs think about government attempts to foster and regulate enterprise. Search the biographies, autobiographies, public speeches, media profiles, and blogs of some well-known entrepreneurs; you can start with the people featured in case studies
What works? Select two examples of policies that are being evaluated. You can begin with the case illustrations in Section 15.5 or search any of the following sources: (a) media coverage(e.g. newspaper articles, television programmes, journalists’blogs); (b) official reports (e.g. by governments
Spot the policy: Using the case illustrations and web links in this chapter as a starting point, search for the websites of three national or regional governments and download examples of their enterprise policies. Categorise and compare the policies using the frameworks introduced in Sections 15.3
Whose history? There is often a great deal of argument between historians (and others) over the factual accuracy of an account, or of how the evidence should be interpreted. For example, an entrepreneurial autobiography may give one account – perhaps emphasising the individual’s own abilities
Adopting historical methods In Section 14.1, we considered some of the methods available to researchers who want to examine entrepreneurial activity from an historical perspective.Imagine that you were researching entrepreneurial activity in the early days of the Internet (i.e. the period
What ‘use’ is history? There is a continuing debate regarding the role and the relevance of historical research in ‘practical’subjects like management and entrepreneurship; see, for example, the exchange between Godelier (2009), Tiffany (2009), Kobrak (2009), and Popp (2009). To debate this
Uncovering my entrepreneurial history: Re-read Section 14.2 and the Student focus case (Case 14.1), then contact members of your wider family and try to discover whether one of your ancestors was involved in entrepreneurial activity, broadly defined. If so, write an account of their life, based on
Comparing organisational histories: Using references identified in Section 14.2 and the Recommended reading suggestions as a starting point, locate the histories of two commercial companies or social enterprises. Read the histories and summarise using the following questions (NB: these are
Comparing entrepreneurial lives: Using references identified in Section 14.2 and the Further reading guide as a starting point, locate the historical biographies of two entrepreneurs. Read their life stories and summarise under suitable headings (NB: the following categories are suggestions, but
Entrepreneurial societies: Entrepreneurship researchers have tended to concentrate on the ways in which social factors exert an influence on entrepreneurial activity, rather than the other way round (Section 12.1). What kinds of questions might you ask about the influence of entrepreneurial
Methods, methods, methods: Discuss the three following questions: (a) What research method would you prefer to use to explore entrepreneurship from a social perspective? (b) Why might some researchers prefer to use particular methods? (c)What reasons should guide you in selecting research methods?
What’s your topic? What would you like to know about entrepreneurship? Refer back to the opening discussion about potential social research themes (Section 12.1), and compare the themes identified (Table 12.2) with your own favourite research topics. If you are working in a group, turn this into
Learning the lessons? Imagine that you were making one of the following decisions: (a) where to locate your new hightechnology start-up venture; (b) how to organise the supply chain for your new manufacturing venture; (c) how to encourage more entrepreneurial and innovative activity in your
Effectuation in practice Re-read the profile of Helle Neergaard(Case 12.4) and take a look at a recent article on effectuation.Compare the main features of effectuation with a real-world example, using either the biography of an entrepreneur, one of the case studies in this book, or your own
Comparing research approaches Complete an online search for peer reviewed journal articles that tackle one of the following research themes: (a) gender; (b) ethnicity; (c) family;(d) spatial variations; (e) clusters; (f) national or organisational culture. For your chosen theme, select two articles
Encouraging ‘better’ kinds of entrepreneurship: Many governments and governmental agencies have the aim of promoting what might loosely be termed ‘better’ kinds of entrepreneurial activity (e.g. more innovative, more competitive, and more socially and environmentally responsible) (Section
The entrepreneurial learning debate: Following the guidance for Discussion topic 1, organise a debate based on the motion, ‘This House believes that you can teach successful social and/or commercial entrepreneurship.’ Entrepreneurship tutors could take on the role of challenging the motion.
The entrepreneurial personality debate: Form two teams and prepare a set of arguments ‘for’ and ‘against’ the motion: ‘This House believes that there is such a thing as an entrepreneurial personality.’ Allow five minutes for each side, followed by a further five minutes to respond to
Entrepreneurial learning – a student’s perspective: Parts One and Two of this textbook, and the Online Resources, have been designed to encourage entrepreneurial learning. What techniques have the authors used? To consider this question, take a look through the textbook and the Online
Exploring other entrepreneurial lives: Using Case 11.3 as a guide, find three examples of people talking about the factors that prompted them to act entrepreneurially. This may be establishing a social or commercial enterprise, or becoming an‘intrapreneur’ in an existing organisation. Compare
My entrepreneurial personality: Re-read the arguments in Section 11.2, and try at least one of the entrepreneurial assessment tests detailed there or on the Online Resources. What is your impression of the results? Do they reflect your own assessment? Were there any surprises? If possible, compare
Richard Swedberg suggests that social science researchers could get a better understanding of entrepreneurship by paying more attention to the ‘practical knowledge’ of entrepreneurs (Section 10.3). How might you achieve this in practice? To focus your discussion, you might consider one of the
Re-read the discussion about different academic research approaches to entrepreneurship (Section 10.4). Which approaches do you find: (a) most interesting; (b) least interesting? What are your reasons? If you are working in a group, compare your responses with those of other students.Why are
Refer back to Section 10.2, which discusses different sources and types of knowledge about entrepreneurship. Which sources and types of knowledge do you find: (a) most interesting; (b)least interesting? What are your reasons? If you are working in a group, compare your responses with those of other
First steps in entrepreneurship research: One of the best ways to get started is through a personal connection. For this activity, you need to find someone with a direct involvement in some kind of entrepreneurial venture. This person could be a relative, friend, neighbour, or even someone you do
Linking research to policy and practice: Re-read Cases 10.1 and 10.2, focusing on the ways that the researchers have engaged with policy-makers and practitioners. Locate and download a policy-related entrepreneurship research published by Per Davidsson, members of CIRCLE. Using the report as a
Comparing entrepreneurial ventures: Using sources listed in Section 10.2 as a guide, search for a two contrasting examples of an entrepreneurial venture. Try to include one example that you consider to be a fairly ‘extreme’ or ‘marginal’ case, but that you could still argue for as
Put simply, most of the new jobs created in an economy come from high-growth small businesses. What is the role of governments in funding new venture creation and supporting high-growth firms? Big companies might get grants for relocating in an area of high unemployment. Should public funds also be
In terms of finding new ventures to invest in, what might be the differences between a venture investment fund and a social investment fund? What additional criteria would you need to use to determine the social impact of a social enterprise looking for investment? How would you calculate the value
How much planning and forecasting went into determining the amount of finance required to launch the new venture?Were there any differences between the forecast and reality? If so why?
Compare types of finance they used before and after the venture was created. Comment on any changes.
Interview an entrepreneur about how they raised the funds to launch their new venture and the current sources of finance:
Who should be on the monthly assessment committee, and how much time can they spend discussing each business plan?
List the five most important criteria you would use and how each could be assessed and ranked. Who should do this?
You are approached by a new venture capital fund looking to invest in new technology firms in the emerging area of microgeneration of renewable energy. They have asked you to produce a first-stage assessment framework for them to screen business plans. They expect to receive between 50 and 100
Choosing an accountant You have decided to start your new office supplies company and need to find an accountant. You produce a shortlist of three. One recommended by your new bank manager, one by a family friend, and one you meet at a business networking event. You have arranged to see each for
A ‘total quality’ measure which includes five different performance measures for a train operating company.
A system to monitor picking errors in a clothing mail-order company and to calculate the financial cost to the company.
An annual customer satisfaction survey for a management consultancy.
Key performance indicators Any enterprise needs to manage its finances but there might be other non-financial information that could indicate how well a company is doing. How would you set up the following:
What are the three most popular accounting software packages for small businesses? How much do they cost? What do the systems offer? What training is available?
long-term assets.
short-term assets;
net profit;
gross profit;
Business accounting For each of the different types of company, namely: (i) mail order catalogue company (selling gifts), (ii) management consultancy, (iii) car gear box manufacturer, and (iv) social landlord providing housing for rent, describe the similarities and differences in the following
Sales analysis For each of the different types of company, namely: grocery supermarket, fashion retailer, petrol station, coal merchant, describe between three and six categories of sales they might make. Discuss the likely difference in sales and profit margin. How might VAT be different for each
Electronic communication platforms What are the requirements for an effective online social network? Visit Facebook (http://www.facebook.com) and LinkedIn(http://www.linkedin.com) and compare the functionality for setting up and developing online groups. What particular features could be useful for
Controls Which is the most used quality system? How do the standards differ for a product and service company? What does accreditation involve?
Information systems Why should a new venture be consider using a customer relationship management system?
Electronic communication platforms Review the service offered by NetLedger (http://www.netsuite.com) in terms of functionality and cost. Investigate three other similar providers of hosted enterprise applications in order to identify any difference. Which do you think would particularly appeal to
Controls You are launching a new venture, which delivers documents in a busy city centre. You will be offering bicycle, motorcycle, and small van one-hour deliveries. You decided that all of these would be promoted as carbon neutral. Find two organisations that provide an accredited service.
A social enterprise providing home care to over 200 partially sighted individuals within a 60-mile radius.
A team of five IT engineers offering next-day on-site repair or replace services.
A manufacturer of sandwiches, which are supplied to over 100 local fuel service stations.
Information systems What information systems will be important for the following enterprises:?
Entrepreneurs and the new marketing Many of the larger and more established organisations are now adopting ‘new’marketing approaches. What can entrepreneurs do to ensure that their marketing efforts remain competitive?
Customer perceptions Identify five ways in which the founders of a new service-based venture (e.g. restaurant, sports centre, office cleaning company, opticians, or design consultancy) could get a better understanding of customer perceptions. Which of these would you expect to be: (a) quickest; (b)
Finding the gaps What approach would you adopt in order to identify unmet customer needs in one of the following areas:home delivered groceries; night clubs; care for the elderly; fairly traded clothing? Would this process also help you in satisfying those needs?
From segmentation to practice For each of the following markets, try to identify THREE possible segments based on relevant characteristics and THREE segments based on customer needs. Refer to Section 6.4.2 for guidance. In each case, select the segment that you consider to be most attractive for a
Understanding customer types The founders of a new venture have developed an educational software application that allows dyslexic students to develop a personal online dictionary of words and phrases they use. These are displayed as a list of predicted words based on the letters being typed. The
New product launch: the branding challenge You are responsible for developing a branding strategy to use when launching an entrepreneurial venture based around an innovative product or service. First, select your venture (e.g. it could be one of the following: health food retailer; running shoes;
Review your own personal contact network, or that of another student/student team prepared as part of the network audit (Activity 2 above). Try to identify another way of connecting members of your PCN in order to create a different commercial or social venture to the one you have already
How do you think the networking behaviour of entrepreneurs differs from that of other small business owners? What effect are such differences likely to have on the ventures that they create?
Why might there be a difference between the accounts of famous entrepreneurs, which tend to emphasise their individual achievements, and the evidence on networking and collaboration? Can these contrasting views of entrepreneurship be reconciled?
Networks and networking
What do you see as the four biggest challenges in keeping an entrepreneurial team? In what ways (if any) do they differ from those faced by management teams in established organisations? How would you respond to the challenges you have identified?
Why have you chosen these factors?
What are the most important factors you would consider when deciding who to include in your team?
Would it be better to create a new venture with a group of close friends, who you have known for many years, or with a group of people you know less well?
Teams and team-working
Network audit Use the guidance in Section 5.4 to identify the requirements for an effective network. You can either base this activity on your own proposed venture, or use one of the scenarios from Activity 1 above. Prepare a network map, indicating the main external contacts for your venture
You are an environmental scientist with a technological innovation that could help families to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels. You want your idea to have the maximum impact on society, and to be widely available to people, irrespective of their income. You have the support of a wealthy
You and your partner are 21 years old and both of you have recently graduated with degrees in Fine Art. You have an idea for a new business, based on the use of traditional painting techniques and specialist software that could produce real high-quality customised paintings based on digital images.
Team formation audit Use the guidance in Section 5.2 to identify the requirements of an effective team. You can either base this activity on your own proposed venture, or use one of the following scenarios:
Is acquisition by a large firm the most likely fate for successful business ideas exploited in new ventures? Compare Howies(http://www.howies.co.uk), and WebEx (http://www.webex.com)with Dyson (http://www.dyson.co.uk), and Dell(http://www.dell.com).
3M (http://www.3m.com) are seen as an innovative technology company. How can we make such a judgement? Who might be their biggest competitor and how innovative are they?
Discuss what characteristics creative people have and see if you can agree which are the three most relevant characteristics of creativity for entrepreneurship.
What other markets would you recommend Hotel Chocolat to consider developing and why? Who are likely to be their main competitors?Sources: Barber 2010; Hotel Chocolat 2016; ICCO 2016.
Compare Hotel Chocolat (http://www.hotelchocolat.co.uk) with other catalogue-based companies in the UK, such as Healthspan(http://www.healthspan.co.uk) and I Want One of Those(http://www.iwantoneofthose.com). What are the similarities and differences?
Considering how competitive the chocolate market is, why do you think Hotel Chocolat have been able to become established and expand their channels to market?
What strategy would you recommend for an existing fruit juice supplier wishing to enter the smoothies market sector?
How would you describe the business model of Innocent Drinks and how does it differ from that of Del Monte? What are the drivers (imperatives) for this entrepreneurial opportunity?
Why was the smoothies market sector exploited by small entrepreneurial firms rather than the larger existing fruit juice suppliers? What was the role of creativity?
The founders of Howies wanted to express their ethical values through their business. Was that important to their customers?Provided sales were growing and the company was profitable, did it really matter?
Why would a company, like Timberland, decide to buy a smaller company rather than just develop competing products and brands? Perhaps it is hard for larger companies to be entrepreneurial, or does opportunity recognition become more difficult?
With hindsight it is often easy to see the various stages of a company’s development. But is it possible for the entrepreneurs who run growing companies to see these at the time?
Compare the drivers for the Sony MiniDisc(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MiniDisc) in the 1990s and the Apple iPod (http://www.apple.com/itunes) in the early 2000s.Can you account for their different levels of success?
Why does the fashion industry have so many small innovative firms yet the automotive industry is dominated by large international corporations?
Using opportunity business models carry out a comparison of a successful and an unsuccessful new business idea. Develop criteria for evaluating new business ideas which would be useful for selecting entrepreneurial opportunities.
Entrepreneur’s perspective Arrange to interview an entrepreneur. Ask them how they came up with the idea for their business. Did they mention their own skills and experience or other people? How much of this is down to luck or being in the right place at the right time? What was planned and what
Business plan What should be in a business plan? Find three examples of business plans and compare them in order to identify the similarities and differences. Visit the website of a major international bank and see what advice they give for producing business plans?

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Exploring Entrepreneurship 2nd Edition Richard Blundel, Nigel Lockett, Catherine Wang - Solutions

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