Introduction: entrepreneurs, universities and governments

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book deals with the specifics of informal entrepreneurial activity in the fragile post-socialist environment of Russia. It deals with the process of internationalization of Chinese enterprises, which has specific features distancing it from both developed countries and emerging market economies. The book presents an exploration of the Boston area’s universities and the entrepreneurial behaviour of their academic spin-offs. It is concerned with the central actors in the research project, that is to say, with entrepreneurs, universities and governments. The book introduces the new concept of ‘local liabilities’ in relation to native and immigrant entrepreneurship. It presents the case of Chinese entrepreneurship in the area of Prato, known as one of Italy’s main industrial districts, in which native and immigrant entrepreneurs co-exist, facilitating the emergence of local lia...