The Boundaries of Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Foreword Both academic fields, innovation management and entrepreneurship, have been developed over years quite separately and (if at all) with only few contacts and interactions between each other. But looking at this fields with a 'fresh eye', they can be interpreted as essential parts of an holistic macro-model of innovation and entrepreneurship. This model describes the whole process from the creative early steps of idea management and opportunity recognition over idea development up to the (successful) commercialization of these ideas. It is one of the characteristics of this process that the focus in the early steps is on innovation management, while entrepreneurial skills and methods are more important in its later phases. This book by Alexander Brem, which is based on his doctoral dissertation he successfully completed and defended in 2007, introduces in its first chapter such a new and interesting macro-model of innovation and ent- preneurship, which - by the way - helps us to identify and locate the s- entific questions and problems he is dealing with in the following parts of his book: In the second chapter, he (re-)considers the well-known mark- pull/technology-push-debate, shows empirical evidence that the integ- tion of both views might be the critical success factor. One of the hi- lights of this book is presented in chapter three - the concept of an in- grated idea management which shows many innovative elements and is supported by empirical results of an exploratory study.