Abstract
Entrepreneurship is one of the engines of economic growth of a country as it encourages the creation of small and medium-sized businesses, thus creating employment and welfare. Communities, both those traditionally well-represented and those traditionally underrepresented have a role to play in encouraging entrepreneurial activities, and this book presents the role of both community groups. The book ‘Diversity and Entrepreneurship’ helps readers to understand and improve the social, environmental and economic conditions for business growth in all countries, especially in developing countries.
Diversity and entrepreneurship are topics of concern for academics, business people, government, and communities. The book is very interesting because it provides perspective in looking at diversity as a new entrepreneurial mind-set. The book edited by Vanessa Ratten and Leo-Paul Dana contributes to enriching knowledge about entrepreneurship, particularly in bringing up the role of the entrepreneurship communities for both represented and underrepresented groups. It covers a variety of different topics related to diversity and entrepreneurship, which will be valuable references for people who pursue this field.
The book contains eight chapters by different authors from various countries, thus providing a wide-ranging and in-depth discussion of diversity and entrepreneurship. Moreover, the book provides insights for business people who want to utilise diversity as an asset in the new entrepreneurial mind-set. Business leaders need to have an adequate understanding of diversity and entrepreneurship, and opportunities that can be utilised to facilitate the development of their business. The book can be used as a reference for academics in their research on entrepreneurship and as a guide for policymakers in taking initiatives related to entrepreneurship development through appropriate programmes.
Chapter 1 introduces the concept of diversity in the context of entrepreneurship. Theories about diversity are also presented to provide scientific studies and in-depth understanding. Chapter 2 presents a minority entrepreneurship which is highlighted as underrepresented communities. Furthermore, different types of minorities are explored to identify their motivations in entrepreneurial activities. Chapter 3 provides a discussion on refugee entrepreneurship. This chapter implements a systematic review method to explore certain factors that characterise the entrepreneurial nature of refugees, thus offering potential for further research.
In addition, chapters 4, 6, and 7 present social entrepreneurship. Chapter 4 focuses on international studies on social entrepreneurship and presents various definitions with a deep discussion. This chapter also presents several dimensions as characteristics of social entrepreneurship such as social mission, business activities, and the level of innovation. Chapter 6 explores the process of empowering female entrepreneurs in Indonesia by presenting a conceptual framework on female empowerment through social entrepreneurship. This chapter encourages the involvement of various stakeholders to create an ecosystem of social entrepreneurship that supports this empowering process. Meanwhile, chapter 7 presents five important elements to demonstrate the specific competencies needed in social entrepreneurship in Brazil including direct contact with the problems of social reality, human and material conditions, see yourself as a social entrepreneur, sharing of collective meanings, and development of essential/organisational skills.
The book also presents diversity and entrepreneurial activities by exploring eco-entrepreneurship with citation analysis and thematic analysis in chapter 3. This chapter identifies three main variables that influence green aspects: environmental pollution control, product stewardship, and utilisation of renewable energy. Chapter 8 is the last chapter discussing the diversity in entrepreneurship that affects the community. In addition, this chapter focuses on the importance of communities for the societal advancement in which cultural and social norms play a role in community development, including the underrepresented segments of society. The potential of the community in building entrepreneurial ecosystems and influencing the mechanism of diversity are also presented in the chapter.
This review of Diversity and Entrepreneurship edited by Vanessa Ratten and Leo-Paul Dana, is focused on social perspectives on diversity as a potential factor in encouraging entrepreneurial activity. Various innovations that encourage entrepreneurial activity emerge from diversity. The book does not discuss the diversity of local culture and regional development in detail even though diversity in a country is always associated with cultural diversity including ethnic groups, traditions, religions, languages, and community behaviours. However, the book highlights the importance of diversity and tries to explore various types of entrepreneurial communities. The book also highlights diversity as a potential factor in developing entrepreneurship in a community, both from a micro and macro perspective. Thus, the importance of encouraging refugees’ independence with entrepreneurial activities is also discussed in the book. Various implementations of diversity and entrepreneurship are presented in this book including social entrepreneurship, eco-preneurship, and female entrepreneurship. It provides a deeper understanding of diversity and entrepreneurship in the current era of globalisation.
The book will enable students to understand emerging trends in diversity and entrepreneurship research that are sometimes difficult to find in references in that field. Entrepreneurship education has been widely implemented in various educational institutions, thus students will find this comprehensive book a good source of empirical and theoretical literature. Furthermore, it helps students to understand the implementation of various types of entrepreneurial activities, and to find entrepreneurial opportunities in diversity.