Growth capital and entrepreneurship [antikvár]

Introduction As we move into the last decade of the twentieth century, Europe is in a state of economic turmoil. In the West, the Single European Markét will mean the end of economic barriers between member states; in the East, the raising of the "iron curtain" and the loosening of trade barriers has created commercial opportunities which most individuals have never experienced. Central to the re-alignment of both economic groups is the development of a new cadre of entrepreneurs, those who will create the pan-European ventures of the twenty first century. Clearly, therefore, the encouragement and nurturing of this group is a crucial part of economic revival strategies, a point well accepted by most Governments. However, despite their obvious importance, there exists little empirical evidence on which to base these strategies. The European Foundation for Entrepreneurship Research [EFER] was founded to fill this gap. Sponsored by a group of venture capitalists and other organisations closely involved in the entrepreneurship world, EFER was founded in 1987 under the leadership of Bert Twaalfhoven, President of N.V. Indivers and an entrepreneur. The aim was both to foster research into the key factors for success of the emerging growth companies of Europe and to disseminate the findings amongst academics, policy-makers and entrepreneurs. Each year, academics from throughout Europe are invited to submit research proposals for sponsorship. The key aspect of all those accepted is that they should focus upon those issues associated with successful, growing companies. The primary platform for presentation of the results is the annual EFER Forum, the first of wich was held in IMEDE, Switzerland, in December, 1988. The proceedings, "European Entrepreneurship: Emerging Growth Companies", are available from EFER. The second Forum was held in INSEAD, Francé, in December 1989 and the proceedings, "Building European Ventures" are published by Elsevier. This book represents the proceedings of the third Forum held at IESE, Spain, in December 1990. In order to facilitate dialogue between the researchers and the participants, attendance at the Forum is by invitation only. A list of those present for this meeting is found in the Appendix. To initiate discussion of the findings each