By now it is fairly well established that entrepreneurship is one of the prime processes of giving a boost to a region’s economy. This insight has many governments attempting to promote entrepreneurship. The starting point is of course the motivational aspect. Many scholars have discussed what motivates entrepreneurs to take the final leap of faith, and if such motivation can be influenced by outside agencies.

This is the topic of the first article, “What motivates entrepreneurs and can their motivation be influenced?” The authors begins by examining the personal traits that affect the entrepreneurial motivation, and go on to factor in the situational factor to explain the decision to start out on one’s own. They study the effect of some “disrupting events” and give their interpretation of the situational push/pull factors and their interaction with the individual’s personal traits that finally results, or fails to result, in entrepreneurial venture. The article ends with some suggestions on environmental supports desirable to encourage entrepreneurship.

Taking off from the situational motivational factors, a related phenomenon comes to mind. We have notices certain communities being more prone to producing entrepreneurs than others. In India, we find more Sikhs and Gujaratis as entrepreneurs. The second article, “The Entrepreneurial Ethic of the Sikhs: Religious Signaling and the

Importance of Social Capital for Trust and Exchange” takes on just this puzzle. The authors explore the Sikh religion institutions, practices and external symbols that tend to reduce the transaction costs and have other positive spillovers, thus making their businesses more viable from the start.

The third article is more practical. The author in his article “Critical Issues of Starting Entrepreneurship in Kazakhstan”, attempts to examine the environmental barriers in Kazakhstan that hinder the entrepreneurs. It is interesting to note that excessive regulatory controls have more of a detrimental effect on entrepreneurship than even the lack of capital to start off.

In the fourth article, “Social Wealth Creation via Experimental Entrepreneurial Philanthropy”, the author brings in another dimension to the need to promote entrepreneurship. So far we have been discussing the materialistic and perhaps selfish motive of more job creation, growth of economy and generation of wealth etc. This article argues that there are other social benefits to be had as a result of more people taking to entrepreneurship. In fact there is a whole new class of such “social entrepreneurs” who are motivated more by the challenge of making a difference for the society, rather than earning big money for their company. It is a balance between individual and social wealth.

There are other regular features including a book review, case study, interesting news for the entrepreneurs, quotations and quiz. Please do send your comments on how you find the journal and your suggestions on improving it.