The Technological Entrepreneur's Playbook

Most texts, university courses and corporate training program have the start point in the entrepreneurial process being the identification of new market opportunities thereby providing the basis for the development of a radically new product or service proposition. Given the high number of commercial successes achieved by this market-driven approach, it is clear this a valid and viable way of creating new firms and sustaining the performance of existing organizations. Nevertheless it is important to register that in terms of maximizing the wealth of organizations and even entire nations, the most economically impactful entrepreneurial outcomes are the result of what Joseph Schumpeter, the father of modern entrepreneurship theory, described as 'creative destruction' leading to the decline and sometimes the total disappearance of existing industrial sectors. Schumpeter opined that the most successful form of innovation is technology-driven which occurs with scientific or technological breakthroughs and experimentation leading in many cases to the launch of a radically new product or service at a time when there often is little evidence of the existence of an identified market opportunity. Subsequent to the emergence of Schumpeter's theories, both academic research and real world case studies have validated the fact that the management of technology-driven entrepreneurship is somewhat different process to that of market-driven entrepreneurship. The existence of these differences generates the perspective that benefit exists in identifying the managerial guidelines that can be of assistance in ensuring the success of technological entrepreneurship projects in both start-ups and existing businesses. This book provides such guidance.