Entrepreneurship and Innovation During Austerity ― Surviving Beyond the Great Recession

The banking and eurozone crises have triggered a new age of austerity during which customers will radically alter their buying behaviour. Many existing management theories are becoming inapplicable during the longest economic downturn since World War II. The last time the world faced such severe austerity was during the 1930s Great Depression. At that time the Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter concluded that organizational survival demands exploitation of entrepreneurship and innovation. During the current economic downturn Western firms are facing increasingly intensive price competition from countries such as China. This volume uses research and real world case materials to prove that the future survival of Western organizations, through and beyond the current Great Recession, is dependent upon fully understanding the nature of current market change as a result of economic austerity and to exploit entrepreneurship, innovation and new technology in order to develop superior products and create new markets.

Ian Chaston is Visiting Professor at Centrum Catolica Business School, Peru. Previously he taught marketing and undertook research in entrepreneurship at Plymouth Business School, UK. He also founded Plymouth University's spin-off company Moustraining Ltd, which researches on-line learning applications to reduce higher education delivery costs. He has led projects on entrepreneurship for government agencies and universities in the UK and overseas.