BOOK REVIEW: "Handbook of Research on Techno-Entrepreneurship", Edited by Francois Therin

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Entrepreneurship is described as one of the critical aspects of managing innovation and technology. It is the entrepreneurs who find the courage and take all kinds of risks to commercialize inventions. Therefore it is critical to understand key success factors at all levels. This book primarily documents what the authors call as the early research on exploring entrepreneurship in high technology environments. So it is a good resource for researchers interested in this field. I would recommend it to those who want to get a quick ramp up on this topic. The book has five parts. The first part introduces how entrepreneurship is different in technology environments. This section really identifies the major actors in the process of technology transfer including universities, government and the industry as well the phases of the process. There is also a section focusing on the relationships of the entrepreneurs exploring the phenomenon. The second part explores variations in the process through multiple case studies. Cases include corporations fostering this behavior to avoid any impacts of disruptive technologies. The third part builds upon what was presented in the second part by additional cases including university business incubators and spin off companies. The last two parts provide industry specific cases. One parts focuses on e-entrepreneurship which really focuses on building new businesses in the digital world of internet. The other part on the other hand focuses on biotechnology. Overall the book is a good resource for those who are starting to learn about the commercialization of technologies. It would be a good text book for such graduate classes. I am thinking about using this book for the “Technology Transfer” class I am teaching. The class is a core class for Ph.D students and I believe the book encourages a good mix of discussion on this topic.