Review questions to individual chapters
Bruce R. Barringer
R. Duane Ireland

Copyright ©2012 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

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Chapter 1
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2.
3.

4.

Increasingly, entrepreneurship is being practiced in countries throughout the world. Why do you think this is the case? Do you expect entrepreneurship to continue to spread throughout the world, or do you think its appeal will subside over time?
What key insights does the GEM study provide us about entrepreneurship? What evidence is available suggesting that the often reported statistic that 9 out of 10 new businesses fail is an exaggeration?
What is a more realistic failure rate for new firms?
What is entrepreneurship? How can one differentiate an entrepreneurial firm from any other type of firm? In what ways is an entrepreneur who just launched a restaurant different from someone who just took a job as a general manager of a restaurant owned by a major restaurant chain?
Copyright ©2012 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

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Chapter 1
5. What are the three main attributes of firms that pursue high levels of corporate entrepreneurship? Would these firms score high or low on an entrepreneurial intensity scale?
6. What are the three primary reasons people become entrepreneurs?
Which reason is given most commonly? Which reason best describes why you may choose to become an entrepreneur?
7. Some people start their own firms to pursue financial rewards.
However, these rewards are often far fewer than imagined and / or expected. Why is this so?
8. What are the four primary traits and characteristics of successful entrepreneurs? 9. Why is passion such an important characteristic of successful entrepreneurs? What is it about passion that makes it particularly compatible with the entrepreneurial process?
Copyright ©2012 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

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Chapter 1
10. Why is a product/customer focus an important characteristic of successful entrepreneurs?
11. What is it about “tenacity” that makes it such an important characteristic for entrepreneurs?
12. What are the five common myths of entrepreneurship?
13. What evidence do we have that debunks the myth that entrepreneurs are born, not made?
14. What are the four distinctive parts of the entrepreneurial process and what is the relationship among the parts?
15. How would you characterize the risk-taking propensity of most entrepreneurs? 16. What factors favor older entrepreneurs as opposed to younger entrepreneurs? Copyright ©2012 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

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Chapter 1
17. What did Joseph Schumpeter mean by the term creative destruction? 18. In general, what effect does entrepreneurship have on economies around the world?
19. How is the demographic makeup of entrepreneurs changing in the
United States? What do you believe is accounting for these changes? 20. Describe several examples of the impact that entrepreneurial firms have on a society.

Copyright ©2012 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

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Chapter 2
1. What is a product opportunity gap? How can an entrepreneur tell if a product opportunity gap exists?
2. What is an opportunity? What are the qualities of an opportunity, and why is each quality important?
3. What four environmental trends are most instrumental in creating business opportunities? Provide an example of each environmental trend and the type of business opportunity that it might help create.
4. Explain how “solving a problem” can create a business opportunity.
Provide an example that was not mentioned in the chapter of a business opportunity that was created in this way.
5. Explain how finding a gap in the marketplace can create a business opportunity. 6. What is meant by opportunity recognition?

Copyright ©2012 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

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Chapter 2
7. In what ways does prior industry experience provide an entrepreneur an advantage in recognizing business