"Ruef explodes the myth of the lone entrepreneur, showing how those who start businesses assemble productive groups around themselves. He explains in a brilliant, original way how groups evolve into viable organizations and why some succeed while others fail. This is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand how entrepreneurs build businesses and why growing an enterprise is a team sport."-- Philip Anderson, INSEAD, director of the Rudolf and Valeria Maag International Centre for Entrepreneurship " The Entrepreneurial Group systematically looks at theories that guide the explanation of the entrepreneurial process. In an interesting way, Ruef grounds these theories in the real-life experiences of entrepreneurs. He takes on some important issues. This book also brings together all of the research in the sociology of entrepreneurship."-- John Sibley Butler, University of Texas, Austin "Even many of those well read in the research on entrepreneurship believe that Ayn Rand best captured the character of the typical entrepreneur: an individualistic, heroic, modern-day cowboy transforming the economic landscape against all odds.

In The Entrepreneurial Group , Ruef effectively dispels this myth. The typical entrepreneur is not an individual but a team. This insight has important implications for academics and legislators."-- Olav Sorenson, Yale University "For millennia, economic progress was driven by small migrant groups introducing innovations to fit new places. Ruef shows how today's entrepreneurs are a lot like those early families and tribes in movement, adapting social organization to localities and opportunities. The Entrepreneurial Group is a drop of sanity in an ocean of fraud about entrepreneurship, especially in teaching positions financed by corporations."-- Arthur L. Stinchcombe, professor emeritus, Northwestern University.