Entrepreneurship in Theory and Practice: Paradoxes in Play

Theories of entrepreneurship are surrounded by tensions and dilemmas, which this book presents as a collection of paradoxes. This challenges the understanding of entrepreneurship and offers the reader an insight into the paradoxical nature of the theories. At the same time, the paradoxes reflect the uncertainty and complexity that the entrepreneurs are confronted with in their everyday life. The book challenges the reader to be critical and to take a stand on many of the situations in which the entrepreneurs are involved on their entrepreneurial journey - situations which are often characterized by dilemmas and mystery. Each chapter is initiated with a concrete entrepreneurial story, which gives you an appetite on the core issue of the chapter and the paradox dealt with in the chapter. The reader meets "real life entrepreneurs" in a very concrete way. The next step is introduction and discussion of entrepreneurship theories and concepts related to the story and the topic of the chapter. Each chapter ends up with a double interpretation of the story which reflects the two sides of the paradox. Throughout the chapters, a number of exercises challenge the student to work with theory and take a stand on concrete problems. Some of these exercises can be solved by means of e-tools. The book is an element in a learning universe rather than just a traditional textbook: www.idea-textbook.dk. The book has an introductory purpose. It requires no special previous knowledge and can be used in any study field at uni-versities and institutions of higher education. The book ad-dresses two categories of students: those who wish to start their own company - or perhaps already run their own company while studying - and those who, more generally speaking, wish to develop an entrepreneurial way of thinking and relevant entrepreneurial competences for use in their future career.