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This book investigates entrepreneurial initiatives in the three largest economies of the world: China, Japan and the USA. It brings together historical, institutional, and ethnographic approaches and highlights entrepreneurial patterns that result from cultural, legal, and political forces that facilitate and constrain entrepreneurship.

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Introduction to Studies of Entrepreneurship Initiatives; C.Usui PART I: HISTORY OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP A Historical View of Chinese Entrepreneurship; D.Faure Entrepreneurs and Managers in the Development of Japanese Business; T.Yui & R.Colignon Entrepreneurship and Social Change in the United States: Dynamic Stages, Historical Lessons; D.Sicilia PART II: INSTITUTIONAL ENVIRONMENT OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP Dancing with Change: A Co-evolutionary Perspective for Private Entrepreneurship during China´s Institutional Transition; Y.Zhang, B.Ren, G.Du, & J.Yang Academic Spin-offs in Japan: Institutional Revolution and Early Outcomes; N.Harada & H.Mitsuhashi The Social Context for High-Potential Entrepreneurship in the U.S.: An Historical-Institutional Perspective; D.Hart PART III: CULTURE AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP Does Stage Matter in Chinese New Ventures? The Roles of Learning, Network, and Corporate Entrepreneurship in Building Cultural Competitiveness; S.Zhao & C.Jiang The Stigma of Failure and Limited Opportunities for Ex-failed Entrepreneurs´ Redemption in Japan; H.Mitsuhashi & A.Bird PART IV: CASE STUDIES OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP Success Factors in Applying Co-Creation of the Voice of the Customer as a Strategy of Social Innovation by Japanese Services Entrepreneurs: Case of Takayuki Nakagawa; C.Kay KOOTS Green Tea; A.Gilinsky Jr. & W.Kusumoto

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CHIKAKO USUI Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Missouri St. Louis, USA. She specializes in the areas of comparative social policy and political economy of Japan. She is co-author of Amakudari: The Hidden Fabric of Japan´s Economy and Japan´s Population Aging and Silver Industries in The Silver Market Phenomenon (edited by F. Kolbacher and C. Herstatt).

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