ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explains that entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation are needed to face the global challenges of our time. Although the existing business model is the source of major malfunctions, the enterprise, in the broadest sense, can help address many of them. At the scale of a country or group of countries, the development of entrepreneurship across society is only possible if the environment is favourable. It is a complex problem because it is affected by the outlook and the very culture of society. Entrepreneurship is not decreed but can be encouraged through the creation of favourable conditions for its emergence. These conditions are many and they are interdependent: academic density and openness; skills clusters in the sectors of the future; cohabitation of global companies; innovative small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and individual entrepreneurs; financing facilities; administrative and institutional simplicity; and tolerance of failure.
