In a world where entrepreneurial success often seems deceptively accessible, it is not always clear what makes a person entrepreneurial. In this book, Dimo Dimov offers a reflective insight into the entrepreneurial journey, striking up a conversation about entrepreneurship in order to challenge and untangle existing preconceptions.
A discussion of challenges and tensions such as idea versus opportunity, genius versus lunatic, and skill versus luck forms the foundation of the book, while the second part offers actions and considerations which can help the reader to seek opportunities in a fractious environment. The final part of the text focuses on the collective spirit in entrepreneurship, arising from the interplay between participation and outcomes.
The author brings a succinct diversity to the field, making this book essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students on entrepreneurship courses, as well as scholars, researchers, and practitioners looking for a new perspective on entrepreneurship.
Part I: Tensions of the Entrepreneurial Journey
1. Idea vs. Opportunity
2. Genius vs. Lunatic
3. Skill vs. Luck
4. Judgment and the Entrepreneurial Journey
Part II: The Journey from the Inside
5. Future
6. Milestones and Problems
7. Managing Internal Pressures
8. Managing External Pressures
Part III: The Journey from the Outside
9. Entrepreneurship as Sport
10. Entrepreneurial Impact as Emergent Development
Biography
Dimo Dimov is Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Bath, UK.
‘Building on his scholarly reflections, Professor Dimov offers a refreshing, action-oriented take on the entrepreneurial process and its inherent tensions. To take the entrepreneurial journey requires neither genius nor good fortune, simply a new mindset in which judgment is paramount and the future is contingent upon actions. As such, Professor Dimov’s book is a call to arms to embrace the entrepreneurial journey.’
Denis A. Grégoire, Associate Professor, HEC Montréal, Canada
‘Dimo Dimov’s contributions to entrepreneurship scholarship have helped to fundamentally shape the ways we think about the field. The Reflective Entrepreneur is a fine crystallization of his academic investigations, offering a highly accessible intellectual canvas for understanding entrepreneurship. A potential contemporary classic, I cannot recommend it highly enough to any researcher, student or practitioner interested in the dilemmas and tensions at the heart of the entrepreneurial journey.’
Stratos Ramoglou, Associate Professor of Strategy and Innovation, University of Southampton, UK
'A valuable text that gets to the heart of the entrepreneurial machine - the entrepreneur themselves - by dissecting the entrepreneurial self. A new and exciting addition to the literature for those studying entrepreneurship and inspiration for those who wish to develop their own entrepreneurial mind-set.'
Monique Boddington, Research Associate, University of Cambridge, UK
'The Reflective Entrepreneur is a great text for executives, beautifully simplifying key concepts in the field of entrepreneurship. In encouraging practitioners to reflect on the phenomenon that they experience, the author creates ‘aha-moments’ and delivers on the promise of the title.'
Vangelis Souitaris, Professor, Cass Busines
