This book will be an excellent primer for policy makers wishing to understand the nature and contradictory significance of the underground economy and needing to design suitably subtle policy responses to it. Roger Lee, Growth and Change The Hidden Enterprise Culture is a top pick for any economist or academician interested in this field, as well as for any underground entrepreneur who wants to make their enterprise lawful with the fewest possible legal complications. Midwest Book Review Strongly recommended for policy makers and students of business. Global Business Review 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.

Purpose - In the majority (third) world, informal employment has been long viewed as an asset to be harnessed rather than a hindrance to development. The purpose of this paper is to show how a similar perspective is starting to be embraced in advanced economies and investigates the implications for public policy of this re-reading. Design/methodology/approach - Documents the shifts in how informal employment in western economies is conceptualised in both the academic literature and public policy. Findings - This paper reveals that the representation of informal employment as an exploitative, low-paid sweatshop realm is being replaced with a depiction of such work as a hidden enterprise culture that needs to be harnessed. Evaluating how this might be achieved, the need for a shift in public policy away from a deterrence approach and towards an approach that combines deterrents with enabling initiatives to pull this hidden enterprise culture into the formal economy is identified. Specific enabling measures to achieve this in the context of advanced economies are then discussed. Practical implications - This paper displays how western governments can harness the hidden enterprise culture by setting out specific initiatives to enable its transfer into the formal economy. Originality/value - This paper provides one of the first attempts to re-read informal employment as a hidden enterprise culture and to evaluate its implications for public policy.

Even though entrepreneurs are commonly depicted as risk-takers, little evaluation has occurred of whether they weigh up the costs of being caught and the level of punishments, and engage in off-the-books working practices. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the degree to which entrepreneurs engage in such off-the-books work. Reporting a survey conducted in Moscow during late 2005 and early 2006 of 81 entrepreneurs (defined here as individuals starting-up an enterprise in the past three years), just 3.7 per cent are found to operate on a wholly legitimate basis. The remaining 96.3 per cent have not registered their business, have no license to trade and conduct all of their trade on an off-the books basis. The outcome is a call to move beyond the wholesome and virtuous ideal-type of legitimate super heroes that pervades textbook depictions of entrepreneurs and towards a fuller understanding of the lived realities of entrepreneurship.

This paper evaluates critically competing theories that variously represent entrepreneurship in the shadow economy as a residue from a previous mode of production (modernisation theory), a survival strategy for those marginalised from the circuits of the modern economy (structuralist theory), a voluntarily chosen endeavour pursued due to over-regulation in the legitimate economy (neo-liberal theory) or a practice chosen for social, redistributive, resistance or identity reasons (post-structuralist theory). Reporting evidence from 861 face-to-face interviews in English localities, it is shown that no one theory is universally applicable. Instead, all are revealed to be valid with regard to various forms of shadow entrepreneurship, and only by integrating them is it possible to develop a finer-grained more inclusive comprehension of this multi-faceted and complex hidden enterprise culture.

Corporate Culture/Team Culture is the first book to address in depth the issue of changing the organizational culture to support team effectiveness. It also presents a practical, proven model for achieving such transformation, and illustrates the process with three extended case studies and numerous additional examples of the model in action. To create high-performing teams, the authors say, we must first acknowledge that teamwork doesn't come naturally. While individuals and organizations are trained to pay lip service to the value of working together, this approach actually clashes with cultures that reward "looking out for number 1." Add in the turf battles that still smolder in most workplaces - especially in companies that have recently merged or downsized - and teams can become powder kegs. Yet, as the book's examples reveal, teaming is a vital way to structure work and meet today's business challenges. Whether your organization is fine-tuning its team efforts or just starting out, Corporate Culture/Team Culture shows you how to succeed by tackling cultural issues from the ground up.

There is little doubt that in recent years, enterprise has been considered an essential approach in the alleviation of deprivation existing in the developed world. The assumption is that area-based initiatives provide a means by which enterprise can include all members of society in mainstream social and economic activities. The rationale behind Enterprise, Deprivation and Social Exclusion is to critically challenge the notion that enterprise can address the complexity behind deprivation and social exclusion by demonstrating UK and North American examples. We see how enterprise has come to be regarded as a means by which poverty can be reduced and new opportunities can be opened up to support individuals. However, the authors here seek to give a greater appreciation to the structural roots of deprivation and pose questions about whether or not enterprise might actually exacerbate structures of social and economic exclusion. What if enterprise actually maintains differences between types of community and keeps individuals entrenched in certain ways of thinking? The contributions in this edited collection will offer a distinct opportunity in respect of both theoretical and empirical advancement. The authors hale from both sides of the Atlantic and form an inter-disciplinary group to provide complementary perspectives in this field.