Author Profile

Colin Donaldson is a globally renowned venture architect, academic pioneer, and investor who has spent over three decades shaping the global startup ecosystem. Serves as the Distinguished Professor of Enterprise at the Oxford Institute for Innovation. Founding Partner at Nexus Horizon Ventures, managing a £1.2B early-stage technology fund. Special consultant to the European Commission on digital innovation frameworks and sustainable scaling. Co-founded three hyper-growth SaaS platforms, leading two to successful NASDAQ public offerings. Donaldson has fundamentally redefined how modern entrepreneurship is taught and practiced. He bridges the gap between rigorous academic theory and high-stakes market reality. His groundbreaking methodologies on lean scaling, predictive market disruption, and ethical AI integration serve as the foundational blueprint for elite accelerator programmes worldwide.

About The Book

New Venture Creation: Entrepreneurship for the 21st Century is the definitive, hands-on blueprint for launching, scaling, and harvesting a successful business in today's fast-paced economy. It moves far beyond dry business theory to immerse you in the real-world grit, strategy, and execution required of modern founders. New Venture Creation: Entrepreneurship for the 21st Century addresses the needs of upper-level entrepreneurship and new venture courses. It provides strong, comprehensive theoretical coverage balanced with practical examples and cases, all designed to instruct students on how to formulate, plan for, finance, launch, manage, and eventually harvest a new venture. The hands-on approach gets students thinking, planning, and ready to execute their own businesses. The text is practitioner-focused, features an especially rigorous section on financials, and focuses on high-growth, innovative ventures. It covers the process of getting a new venture started, growing the venture, and successfully harvesting it. Through text, case studies, and hands-on exercises, this "how-to" text guides students in discovering the concepts of entrepreneurship and the competencies, skills, tools, and experience that will equip them to recognize entrepreneurial opportunities. New Venture Creation is about the actual process of getting a new venture started, growing the venture, successfully harvesting it, and starting again. The design and flow of the book are aimed at creating knowledge, skills and awareness in a pragmatic way. The text, case studies and hands-on exercises mean that students are drawn in to discover critical aspects of entrepreneurship. The text also clearly shows students what levels of competencies, know-how, experience, attitudes, resources and networks are required to pursue different entrepreneurial opportunities. New cases and exercises make the text more relevant to the local market whilst retaining the vital international perspective of the original text. You'll also find new text material to capture the current financial, economic, technological and globally competitive environment of this first decade of the new century.

Table of Contents

Preface
1. DEVELOPING PEOPLE AND COMPETENCIES
Introduction
Capitalizing On A Bright Idea
Covering The Business Side
The Essential Social And Business Network
Building The Right Strategy
Choosing A Topic
The Development Of A Start-Up
Conclusion
2. THE ECONOMICS OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND INNOVATION
Introduction
The Evolution Of Innovation And Enterprise
Value Chains
Economic Cycles
Owners, Capitalists And Entrepreneurs
Invention Is Not Innovation
Types Of Innovation
Sources Of Innovation
Conclusion
3. PROMOTING CREATIVITY
Introduction
Defining Creativity
The Psychological Origins Of Creativity
Tools For Analysing Problems
Creativity Focused On The Marketplace
Conclusion
4. GAINING STRATEGIC ADVANTAGE
Introduction
Positioning In The Marketplace
Tools For Analysing The Market
Successfully Inhabiting The Market
Formulating A Mission Statement
Analysing Your Products
Conclusion
5. THE MARKETING PLAN
Introduction
Customer Segmentation
The Form Of The Marketing Plan
How To Do Market Research
The 4ps And The 4cs Of Marketing
How To Price Your Goods Properly
People: Task Matrices
6. THE BUSINESS PLAN
Introduction
Sources Of Capital Investment
Business Angels And Venture Capitalists
The Form Of The Business Plan
The Classical 16 Sections Template
Due Diligence
7. INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL
Introduction
The Three Types Of Intellectual Capital
Patents And Other Formal Ipr
Innovation In Organizations
Human Capital, The Life-Blood Of Small Companies
Who Is Especially Innovative?
Mixing Skills Promotes Innovation
Trickle-Down Rebound
Harvesting Human Capital
Technology Transfer
The Ins And Outs Of Strategic Alliances
Mergers And Acquisitions
Conclusion
8. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
Introduction
The Knowledge Economy
The Value Of Knowledge
Information, Knowledge And Learning
Human Capital Revisited: Knowledge Assets
Information Systems Software
9. PRESENTATION TECHNIQUE
Introduction
Getting The Message Across
The Perception Of Communication
Body Language
Appearance And Dress Code
Audio-Visual Aids
The Structure Of A Presentation
End On A Good Note
10. TECHNICAL INNOVATION
Introduction
The Influence Of Globalization
Company Size And Industry Structure
First Mover Advantage
The Dominant Design
Digital Innovation
Conclusion
11. THE BIOTECHNOLOGY REVOLUTION
Introduction
Biotech Is Unique In Many Aspects
Internal Factors
Organizational Factors
Where Do Disrupting Biotechnologies Arise?
Opportunities In Outsourcing
Entrepreneurship For The Recent Graduate
The Customer Mindset
Paradigm Shift – The World Changes Around You
Further Barriers: The Legislative Environment
12. GREEN ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Introduction
The Imminent Discontinuities
Green Entrepreneurship
What Is Sustainable Development?
The Development Of The Green Market
Fostering Ecopreneurial Behaviour
13. ENTERPRISE IN HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
Introduction
Social Desire And Reward
Entrepreneurial Motivation
The Product Can Be Many Things
The Various Customers
Knowledge And Skill Requirements
What You Need To Know
Social Enterprise
Not-For-Profit Organizations
Voluntary Organizations: Social Entrepreneurship
14. JOURNALISM AND MEDIA ENTREPRENEURS
Introduction
Journalism As Part Of The Cultural Industries
Culture In Post-Industrial Times
Media And Porter’s Five Forces
The Media Convergence Revolution
Innovation And Journalism
Freelancing, The Fastest Route To Fame
The Importance Of Networking
Entrepreneurial Strategies And Success Factors
15. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CREATIVE ARTS
Introduction
Characteristics Of The Creative Arts Industry Generally
State Support
The Film Industry
Standard Contracts
Technology In The Film Industry
The Music Industry
Digitalization And New Business Models
Technology In The Music Industry
Conclusion
16. GROWING THE VENTURE
Introduction
Innovative Is Attractive
Franchising
Business Is About Selling
Marketing And Advertising In The Small Company
Leadership And The Small Company
Entrepreneurial Management
Learning From Failure
17. STARTUP VENTURES
Introduction
Business Incubators
Lean Startup
Stock Market Bubble
18. NEW BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT AND INNOVATION
Introduction
Innovation
Innovation Leadership
Nnovation Management
Innovation System
International Innovation Index
Technological Innovation System
19. CORPORATE SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Introduction
Corporate Governance
Corporate Crime
20. SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Introduction
Business Ethics
Bibliography
Index