Finding Fertile Ground: Identifying Extraordinary Opportunities for New Ventures [Paperback]

Scott A. Shane (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0131423983 | ISBN-13: 978-0131423985 | Publication Date: July 29, 2004

If you're starting a business, the statistics prove that your best odds of success are in high technology industries: not just computing and telecom, but also biotech, electronics, manufacturing and materials, medical devices, robotics, and other knowledge-intensive fields. This is the first book to provide a methodology for finding those extraordinary opportunities. Shane shows how to identify market opportunities and competitor weaknesses, evaluate customer needs, manage risk and uncertainty, predict product adoption and diffusion, structure your organization, and protect intellectual property. You'll learn how to take into account crucial issues such as network externalities, and the emergence of dominant designs and technical standards. Unlike other books on entrepreneurship, this one offers solutions specifically targeted at high tech startups. Based on an MBA course taught at MIT, the University of Maryland, and Case Western Reserve University, it brings together insights that were previously scattered across multiple publications -- or never published at all.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

"This book provides a strong foundation for impending entrepreneurs to aid in

determining the possible positive outcomes of the venture."

—Marcy Freed, President, VitalStim, Inc.

"This book deals very bravely with the opportunity of technology entrepreneurship. This is a great, courageous effort."

—Jerome S. Engel, Executive Director, Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, University of California, Berkeley

"Finding Fertile Ground provides a terrifically engaging perspective on the mindset

of the successful entrepreneur. Scott Shane's well-structured analysis and thought-provoking conclusions give would-be entrepreneurs a great set of tools to use in assessing opportunities and risks. I highly recommend this as a 'must-read' for

anyone considering starting a new venture."

—David Courtney, Executive Vice President and Board Member of TiVo, Inc.

"Truly great technology startup opportunities are very rare and therefore very hard to identify. Scott Shane's new book is unique because it helps technology entrepreneurs systematically analyze their idea, step by step through ten major screens, much like the prospector screens away dirt to expose any nuggets of gold. It is a must read for entrepreneurs determined to build only great high tech businesses."

—Ian C. MacMillan, Academic Director: Snider Entrepreneurial

Research Center, Sullivan Professor of Management

The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

"If you don't have the money to pay for this book now, give the bookstore an IOU.

Your chances of being able to pay it back with high interest will rise with every chapter. The author and I share two core beliefs: the critical importance of selling, and the need for potential entrepreneurs to be tech savvy, even if they are not techie."

—Kenneth P. Morse, Managing Director, MIT Entrepreneurship Center

The author of over 50 scholarly articles on entrepreneurship and innovation management,

Dr. Shane's books include A General Theory of Entrepreneurship, Foundations of Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship: A Process Perspective, and Academic Entrepreneurship. He edits the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Division of the leading scholarly journal, Management Science. Dr. Shane holds a Ph.D. from

The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Most efforts at starting a new business fail. But yours can succeed if you find the right

business opportunity and understand the key success factors. This book shows how.

If you're starting a business, your best odds of success are in high technology industries: not just computing and telecom, but also biotech, aerospace, electronics, manufacturing and materials, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, robotics, and other knowledge-intensive fields. This book is the first complete framework for entrepreneurs who want to start high technology businesses.

The author identifies the key factors associated with long-term success. You'll discover how to identify market opportunities and competitor weaknesses, evaluate customer needs, manage risk and uncertainty, predict product adoption and diffusion, structure your organization, and protect intellectual property. Along the way, Shane shows how to account for crucial issues such as network externalities, and the emergence of dominant designs and technical standards.

Unlike other books on entrepreneurship, this one offers solutions specifically targeted at high tech startups. There's no better way to find your best opportunities.

Indispensable tools for every high-tech entrepreneur, manager, and investor

The right market and more: what it'll take to be "the next Google"

Assess the market potential for products nobody's even imagined before

Beat the biggest players—from the smallest garage Overcome your largest, most established competitors

Create powerful barriers to entry and imitation Keep your markets to yourself—no matter how big they grow

© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Dr. Scott A. Shane is Professor of Economics and Entrepreneurship at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University, where he teaches a course on high technology entrepreneurship. He has taught at MIT¿s Sloan School of Management, Georgia Tech¿s DuPree School of Management, and the University of Maryland¿s Robert H. Smith School of Business.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Wharton School Publishing (July 29, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0131423983
• ISBN-13: 978-0131423985
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #159,104 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Time To Make The Doughnuts, July 11, 2005

By 

John G. Hilliard (Toronto Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Finding Fertile Ground: Identifying Extraordinary Opportunities for New Ventures (Paperback)

Well if you have the guts to start a new business then this author makes the case that high tech is the field to be in. Forget fast food franchises, dry cleaners or video stores, the more knowledge intensive the better. To back this claim up the author gives you the highlights of the last 20 years in America and points to facts that would lead one to believe the economy is doing very well thank you. To put some reality into the conversation he does detail out the very difficult task it is to start a business and make it successful, as a matter of fact the odds are so long it would convince all but the most confident to stay put in the 9 to 5 grind.

So the author tries to identify the keys to what makes people successful entrepreneurs. He helps the reader determine the right business concept to exploit within the high tech arena. Even though he details out that it is a very tough road to make a successful business, he gives the reader enough sound advice and basic business strategy that it makes even a cautious fellow like myself believe I could do it. Overall I found the book interesting and easy to read. I am a bit too much of a doubting Thomas to try it myself, but if you are looking to venture out on your own I think this book would pay for itself many times over.

39 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Recommended!, July 15, 2005

By 

Rolf Dobelli "getAbstract" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Finding Fertile Ground: Identifying Extraordinary Opportunities for New Ventures (Paperback)

Scott A. Shane's excellent book focuses on technology entrepreneurs - no discussions of starting your own hair salon or sushi restaurant here. In fact, he notes that the original title specified "technology entrepreneurship" rather than entrepreneurship in general, though this is a valuable contribution to entrepreneurship literature. Most works on entrepreneurialism emphasize the personality characteristics of successful entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs, common wisdom says, are hard driving, charismatic and visionary. Shane turns sharply away from this "entrepreneurial cult of personality," and presents a strong case that what really counts is picking the right industry to enter in the first place, and then proceeding correctly. We strongly recommend this to entrepreneurs because it guides them to the industries, strategies and perspectives that are likeliest to work. It indeed plows fertile ground.

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read guide for every business person!, June 26, 2005

By 

D. Ivanov (New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Finding Fertile Ground: Identifying Extraordinary Opportunities for New Ventures (Paperback)

As an entrepreneur with six years of experience, I found this book to be the most accurate writing on the subject. "Finding Fertile Ground: Identifying Extraordinary Opportunities for New Ventures" is written in a concise manner that is simple to understand. This book is loaded with priceless nuggets of practical tools and it is impossible to due it justice in a one paragraph review here. Scott Shane has achieved the complex objective of combining thorough academic research with practical applications to the real problems of an entrepreneur and finally presenting the whole package in a highly entertaining book. This is a must read guide for every business person not just entrepreneurs since it shows how to leverage the growth opportunities that exist in the corporate world.