Launching New Ventures provides tomorrow's entrepreneurs with the tools to launch a successful new business in a global marketplace. The text follows the logical development process, from initial idea through drafting of the actual business plan.The Fifth Edition represents the most current thoughts, ideas, and practices in the field of entrepreneurship. Allen focuses on the pre-start-up and start-up stages of a new business, with special emphasis on the process and activities that must take place prior to opening a new business. The student-friendly material includes real-world case studies, new venture checklists, and the advice from successful entrepreneurs and the author herself. Part One introduces the foundations of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial opportunity that are important to understanding the decisions that entrepreneurs make, the environment in which they make those decisions, and the tasks they must undertake before launching a new company. Part Two addresses the heart of entrepreneurial activity--the testing of a new business concept through feasibility analysis. Part Three focuses on strategy and drafting the business plan. Part Four looks at planning for growth and change in the new organization.

Author Biography

Kathleen Allen, PhD is a professor of entrepreneurship at the USC Marshall School of Business and founding director of the Marshall Center for Technology Commercialization. Allen works with scientists and engineers to identify markets and applications for their technologies, develop commercialization teams, and prepare them to launch ventures and seek funding. She is the author of more than 15 books in the field of entrepreneurship and technology commercialization. Her personal entrepreneurial endeavors include two successful companies in commercial real estate brokerage, development, and investment, and two technology-based businesses that commercialized patented technologies. Dr. Allen served as entrepreneur-in-residence to a major aerospace firm, serves as advisor to several private companies, and is director of a NYSE company. She was just selected as Entrepreneurship Educator of the Year for 2014 by the U.S. Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship.