Historical Roots of Industrial Entrepreneurship in India and Japan: A Comparative Interpretation

This book is a significant contribution to the literature on comparative entrepreneurship. Studies in this area are few and far between. Still, fewer are works dealing with the historical experiences of different societies in the realm of entrepreneurship. A cross-national analysis with a focus on a long time horizon should most likely provide a deeper understanding of the phenomenon. This is what this book does. Another principal purpose of this work is to comprehend the essential dynamics of Indian Business behavior. It does so by placing the Indian experience alongside that of another Asian country whose economic and business accomplishments are often cited to highlight India’s poor record. Through such a comparison, the book seeks to correct many popular misconceptions about business developments in India and place the business accomplishments of Japan in a proper historical perspective. The study is not a comprehensive business history of either of the countries under focus. It concentrates on the differential scenario with respect of the emergence, perception, and exploitation of industrial opportunities during the formative period of industrialization in the two countries. Interpreting the available data against an integrated framework, the work arrives at some very refreshing conclusions about entrepreneurial behavior in India as well as Japan.