Chapter 1 Why Entrepreneurship? Entrepreneurship is the greatest tool in the hands of mankind to reduce poverty and increase global prosperity. Entrepreneurship has the ability to improve standards of living and create wealth, not only for the entrepreneurs but also for related businesses, and the society at large. The capitalist school of thought identifies entrepreneurship as the factor of production that organises other factors of production into productive activities. Entrepreneurship has justified this dominant position especially in the twenty first century by lifting millions of people out of poverty and improving living standards in many emerging countries. Entrepreneurship has also proven to be more effective at plummeting poverty rates than well thought out government policies meant to lift people out of poverty, and even better than programmes promulgated by international organisations like the International Labour Organisation, World Bank, World Trade Organisation, and International Monetary Fund. The chapter will also highlight how social entrepreneurship can drive social innovation and transformation in various fields including education, health, environment and enterprise development, while alleviating poverty. Chapter 2 The Returns to Occupations: Entrepreneurship vs Paid Work This chapter examines the pecuniary and non-pecuniary returns to occupational choice. It will draw on the latest research that have used quantile regressions to reveal the existence of a welfare hierarchy in occupations. The empirical analysis suggests that across the welfare distribution, entrepreneurs who employ others have the highest returns in terms of income and consumption, while those entrepreneurs who work for themselves, that is, self-employed individuals, have slightly lower returns than the salaried employees. However, entrepreneurship in any form entails higher returns than casual labour and unemployment, and an escape from poverty. Given these insights, it is pertinent to that individuals know of this income scale as they make their decisions. This chapter will be dedicated to helping individuals realise how to maximise their returns from entrepreneurship given their human and social capital. The chapter will also shed light on the non-monetary rewards to entrepreneurship and how to appreciate and secure them. Chapter 3 Pathways to Successful Entrepreneurship in Developed Countries When it comes to entrepreneurship, there are many pathways. The entrepreneurial spirit is an attitude and perspective inclined to seek out opportunities for economic or lifestyle reasons, and in many cases for both. Developed countries have more formal and informal institutions that support entrepreneurs compared to developing countries and this is one reason why start-ups in developed countries have higher success rates, and why enterprises from such countries tend to have more of a global impact. While individuals in many developed countries often report very high intentions to start-up businesses, many do not follow through and despite the various support for start-ups in those countries, there are significant regional disparities in start-up rates and some barriers to growth. In addition, High Value Entrepreneurship in terms of employment and growth is inconsistent. This chapter will introduce pathways through which entrepreneurship allows individuals in developed countries to escape poverty while creating higher value businesses. It will be a guide for would-be and practicing entrepreneurs and policy makers in developed countries in helping them to navigate the institutional environments in their countries. Chapter 4 Pathways to Successful Entrepreneurship in Developing Countries Entrepreneurship in developing countries is made more difficult because of the institutional voids in such countries. 'Institutional voids' result in the higher transaction costs commonly found in emerging markets representing the geographical regions of Africa, East, South and Western Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean. These voids relate to political and economic systems, trade policies, and product, labour, and capital markets and denote the absence of specialised intermediaries, regulatory systems, and contract enforcement mechanisms. Institutional voids make the transaction costs of doing business higher for both market exchange and for new firm entry. The first types of institutional voids are those that hinder market functioning, typically due to the lack of intermediaries and weakly developed capital, labour, and product markets. However, such voids in turn offer opportunities for (highly skilled) entrepreneurs to create businesses, bridging these voids. The second type of institutional voids hampers not just the functioning of markets but also their development in the first place. When constitutional-level provisions are not enforced, the rules of exchange are uncertain, and market development stalls. Entrepreneurs in emerging economies deal with these two types of institutional voids by relying on informal institutions, especially social networks. The third type of institutional void refers to those that impede market participation. Because institutional arrangements are either absent or weak, they prevent individuals and firms from participating in market exchange in the first place. Examples include the lack of physical infrastructure that prevents individuals from being able to travel to marketplaces, and the presence of informal institutions that exclude women from partaking in economic activity. Such voids are widespread in the least developed countries, but they also exist for rural entrepreneurs and for entire segments of society in thriving emerging market economies such as India. The fourth type of institutional void occurs where there is a demand for social entrepreneurs, and this type encourages individuals to take steps to create social enterprises, but hampers the creation of operating social enterprises in the absence of supportive informal institutions. This chapter will introduce pathways through which entrepreneurship allows individuals in developing countries to escape poverty while creating superior value businesses. It will be a guide for would-be and practicing entrepreneurs and policy makers in developing countries in helping them to navigate the institutional voids in their countries. Chapter 5 Female Entrepreneurship On average, women are less likely to start businesses than men for a complex variety of reasons. Standard explanations for the lower likelihood of female entrepreneurship include personal characteristics, human capital, and barriers related to prejudice concerning access to resources. For example, in terms of personal characteristics, women tend to exhibit lower entrepreneurial self-efficacy and higher fear of failure than men, both closely associated with business creation. Women, especially in developing countries, often have lower levels of human capital in terms of education; and there are often more constraints for them in accessing financial capital. These differences not only hamper the development of entrepreneurial skills and confidence, they are also perpetuated by the fact that there are fewer entrepreneurial role models for women. Across economies, women are burdened by an inequitable share of global poverty and one strategy to address these gaps is to aim for the economic empowerment of women through entrepreneurship. Female entrepreneurship is particularly important for creating jobs that are intrinsically suited for women, given the socio-economic conditions that they face. Such jobs could better align with the human and social capital that women have, provide novel solutions to female issues, and help women achieve a better work-life balance. Many female entrepreneurs also report higher incomes compared to their paid worker counterparts and in addition, they have the ability to use their unused talents while fully expressing themselves. This chapter will explore how more women can escape the barriers to venture creation to establish sustainable business ventures and secure the economic and noneconomic benefits of entrepreneurship. Chapter 6 Ethnic Entrepreneurship Entrepreneurship is an important route out of poverty for ethnic minority individuals, particularly for foreign-born migrants and recent arrivals in developed countries.