Entrepreneurship Today

This book explores how the U.S. has been in the throes of a startup revolution, fueled by a risk-taking culture. There has been a growth of young startups from 1994, accelerating after 2010 through the present day. Most entrepreneurial activity is in the professional and business services sector, which comprises technical services as well as research and development. However, new establishments face a low survival rate, suggesting that starting businesses is not the problem, sustaining their development and growth is the principal challenge. A paradox is presented by the simultaneous presence of declining labor force participation rates among prime working age adults, a decrease in productivity growth rates in the past decade and a startup revolution. Entrepreneurship can be defined by four native skills that are acquired by experience rather than formal education: resourcefulness, practical intelligence, over-optimism and personal initiative. They emerge from an underlying culture of risk-taking which embraces collaboration, openness to new ideas and an awareness of the environment and the needs of people. Connectivity and shared experiences create communities which provide a sense of belonging and identity through the narrative portrayed and the shared values established. A risk-taking culture is born in such an environment, it cannot be taught but must be learned through experience. Swati Bhatt received her Ph.D. in Economics from Princeton University in 1986 and has been a faculty member there since 1992. Her research interests include the economics of digitization and industrial organization with a focus on the technology industry. Bhatt was a research economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (1985-1990) and taught at New York University's Stern School of Business (1990-1992). Her publications include: How Digital Communication Technology Shapes Markets (2017) and The Attention Deficit: Unintended Consequences of Digital Connectivity (2019).