Finding Fertile Ground: Identifying Extraordinary Opportunities for New Ventures (paperback)

"This book provides a strong foundation for impending entrepreneurs to aid in determining the possible positive outcomes of the venture." Marcy Freed, President, VitalStim, Inc. "This book deals very bravely with the opportunity of technology entrepreneurship. This is a great, courageous effort." Jerome S. Engel, Executive Director, Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, University of California, Berkeley "Finding Fertile Groundprovides a terrifically engaging perspective on the mindset of the successful entrepreneur. Scott Shane's well-structured analysis and thought-provoking conclusions give would-be entrepreneurs a great set of tools to use in assessing opportunities and risks. I highly recommend this as a 'must-read'for anyone considering starting a new venture." David Courtney, Executive Vice President and Board Member of TiVo, Inc. "Truly great technology startup opportunities are very rare and therefore very hard to identify. Scott Shane's new book is unique because it helps technology entrepreneurs systematically analyze their idea, step by step through ten major screens, much like the prospector screens away dirt to expose any nuggets of gold. It is a must read for entrepreneurs determined to build only great high tech businesses." Ian C. MacMillan, Academic Director: Snider Entrepreneurial Research Center, Sullivan Professor of Management The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania "If you don't have the money to pay for this book now, give the bookstore an IOU. Your chances of being able to pay it back with high interest will rise with every chapter. The author and I share two core beliefs: the critical importance of selling, and the need for potential entrepreneurs to be tech savvy, even if they are not techie." Kenneth P. Morse, Managing Director, MIT Entrepreneurship Center The author of over 50 scholarly articles on entrepreneurship and innovation management, Dr. Shane's books include A General Theory of Entrepreneurship, Foundations of Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship: A Process Perspective, and Academic Entrepreneurship. He edits the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Division of the leading scholarly journal, Management Science. Dr. Shane holds a Ph.D. from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Most efforts at starting a new business fail. But yours can succeed if you find the right business opportunity and understand the key success factors. This book shows how. If you're starting a business, your best odds of success are in high technology industries: not just computing and telecom, but also biotech, aerospace, electronics, manufacturing and materials, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, robotics, and other knowledge-intensive fields. This book is the first complete framework for entrepreneurs who want to start high technology businesses. The author identifies the key factors associated with long-term success. You'll discover how to identify market opportunities and competitor weaknesses, evaluate customer needs, manage risk and uncertainty, predict product adoption and diffusion, structure your organization, and protect intellectual property. Along the way, Shane shows how to account for crucial issues such as network externalities, and the emergence of dominant designs and technical standards.[read more]