Abstract
Alain Fayolle poses two main questions in this book, namely: why do some individuals actually create businesses, and why do others decide against this course of action, even though they may have what it takes to succeed? He goes about answering these questions in a scholarly manner, taking a processual view of entrepreneurship theoretically, yet also offering practical advice. The book is aimed at ‘graduate students, researchers and reflective practitioners concerned with the dynamics of the entrepreneurial process’ (jacket).
The book is divided into four main parts: ‘Perceptions of Entrepreneurship’, ‘Entrepreneurship and the Entrepreneurial System’, ‘Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurial Processes’ and ‘Entrepreneurial Process Dynamics’, each containing three chapters. It begins with a foreword by William Gartner, who engages readers with the comment that the book ‘makes an excellent job [of] taking the reader on a journey through the many different worlds in which entrepreneurship has been conceptualised and studied’ (p. ix). He also highlights the central message of the book, that is a ‘call to conduct research on entrepreneurship in a manner that is honest to the phenomenon: recognising multidimensional complexity in real time, over time’ (p. xii). This ethos is at the heart of Fayolle’s research. In presenting it to us, he also introduces readers to a wide range of literature including many French texts.
Multidimensional complexity of course presents a considerable challenge to researchers (and indeed readers). It is fortunate then, that Fayolle explains in the introduction that rather than attempting to represent the diversity and richness of the research covered in the entrepreneurship field, the focus in the book is process-based, but conceptualised around the individual/project pair. However, in order to set the scene for that focus, Part 1 presents some foundational concepts organised around entrepreneurship as a social and economic phenomenon, a field of research and an academic subject. Here, Fayolle indicates the many different lenses and levels of analysis that characterise entrepreneurship research, homing in on what he finds most significant for this book-the notion of value creation.
Part 2 explores entrepreneurship as a system, around the idea of the individual–new value creation dialogic. While organising concepts from the entrepreneurship literature such as opportunity and new venture creation are recognised as significant, the strong emphasis on process, Fayolle argues, means that we need to be looking at the temporal dimension, how systems evolve over time – after all, entrepreneurship is inherently about change. Part 2 contains what is perhaps the most original contribution of the book, albeit that this is grounded in the basics of systems theory: that a system is born, transformed and creates new value through and during that transformation process.
In Part 3, Fayolle really seeks to get to the bottom of what we mean by ‘process’ given that this word is used in so many different ways in entrepreneurship that it has started to lose value. The book covers how processes are theorised and modelled, then synthesises a model of the entrepreneurial process that considers multiple dimensions in an evolving dynamic system: that is, the individual, the organisational and the environment. There are three distinct stages to describe the evolution of the system: the process trigger, the commitment to the process and the eventual survival and development (or otherwise) of the system.
In Part 4, these three phases are discussed in detail, with one chapter devoted to each. Gidden’s structuration theory structuration becomes significant at this point, in addition, there are also ideas from catastrophe theory, morphogenesis and complexity theory. As Gartner suggests in his foreword (p. xi), this theoretical juxtaposition is intriguing, and will introduce new conversations about entrepreneurship, particularly between the European and American schools of thought.
Finally, to take a practical view for a moment, it is worth stating that the book sets out a programme for future thinking in the conclusion, and ends with a sound list of references and a useful index. There are helpful tables, figures, diagrams and schemas throughout the book that integrate and synthesise the material into a highly readable whole: this is valuable, given the subtle and nuanced nature of many of the ideas presented.
To summarise, this book brings together a well-grounded set of new ideas concerning our understanding and conceptualisation of entrepreneurship. As I too take an emergence-focused, process-based view in my own research, it is not surprising perhaps that I am well disposed to it. I would recommend it to researchers who take a process view, a qualitative view and a holistic or systems view. It is not for those who confine themselves to a single level of analysis. Similarly, graduate and postgraduate students who aspire to more than basic new venture creation-type texts may find this book gives valuable depth. Whether practitioners would feel engaged enough to find the theoretical and conceptual material useful is perhaps more open to doubt, but certainly the book brings a new, reflective and thoughtful perspective to the study of entrepreneurship.