The Hidden Enterprise Culture: Entrepreneurship in the Underground EconomyEdward Elgar, 2006 - 263 pages Portraying how entrepreneurs often start out conducting some or all of their trade on an 'off-the-books' basis and how many continue to do so once they become established, this book provides the first detailed account of the vast and ubiquitous hidden enterprise culture existing in the interstices of western economies. Until now, the role of the underground economy in enterprise creation, entrepreneurship and small business development has been largely ignored despite its widespread prevalence and importance. In contrast to much of the previous literature that views the underground economy as low-paid, exploitative sweatshop work that should be deterred, this book takes a fresh, more positive perspective that considers the underground economy as a hidden enterprise culture. Colin C. Williams prescribes the means by which western governments can best harness this hidden culture of enterprise. He outlines detailed policy initiatives that seek to assist business ventures in setting up on a formal footing, and aim to encourage underground enterprises and entrepreneurs to make the transition into the realm of legitimacy. This book provides a lucid guide as to how the hidden culture of enterprise can be brought into the open. As such, it will prove invaluable to a wide-ranging audience including scholars and students of business studies, entrepreneurship, management, economics and regional science. |
From inside the book
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... reviewing the case for the underground economy being represented as a hidden enterprise culture and thus an asset that needs to be harnessed rather than an ... reviewed the moral economy of paid favours 10 The hidden enterprise culture.
... reviewed the deterrence and laissez - faire approaches to underground work . As shown , the former is impractical and undesirable , while the latter would come at an extremely high price in terms of the levels of absolute and relative ...
... Reviewing the evolution of thought on the underground economy , along with how this sphere has started to be viewed as an ... reviewed in Part IV represent just a selection of the more positive measures that could be employed . There are ...