What is entrepreneurship and why is it crucial for our society? How does entrepreneurship affect economic development and how can it be encouraged? This book explores these questions, discussing how entrepreneurial activity is driven by different factors. Understanding Entrepreneurship provides a comprehensive description of entrepreneurship, and explores how it plays a decisive role in creating growth, employment and prosperity. The book is based on a wide-ranging study of current research, and discusses entrepreneurship in a real world context, looking at how it influences contemporary society. The authors also examine how taxes, regulations, and government policy can facilitate productive entrepreneurial activity. Understanding Entrepreneurship is designed as a core textbook for undergraduate and graduate courses in entrepreneurship. It is also suitable reading for undergraduate courses in economics and economic history that aim to explain growth and evolutionary change.