Age of Enterprise: Discovering the New Zealand Entrepreneur, 1880-1910

by Ian Hunter

Overview

This history illustrates how entrepreneurship and innovation transformed the New Zealand economy in the 19th century—an otherwise bleak period in international economics. Drawing on case studies and historical evidence, this analysis explores the typical characteristics of these businessmen—What qualities did they display? What role did they play in economic expansion?—and discusses how small, local firms took advantage of industrial giants’ protracted movements.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781869403812
Publisher:	Auckland University Press
Publication date:	04/01/2007
Pages:	300
Product dimensions:	5.75(w) x 9.50(h) x 0.67(d)

About the Author

Ian Hunter is a senior lecturer at the University of Auckland Business School. He is a business historian, whose research has been published in journals such as Australian Economic History Review and Business History Review, and the author of David Levene: A Man and his Business and Robert Laidlaw: Man for Our Time. He is a former professor at Massey University and the Centre for International Business History at the University of Reading and the former director of the Auckland Business History Project. He also served as a joint editor of City of Enterprise: Perspectives on Auckland Business History.

Table of Contents

List of tables and figures     vi
Acknowledgements     vii
Introduction     1
The Entrepreneur     9
Seeds in the Ground: 1820-1880     25
Age of Enterprise: 1880-1910     43
The Problem of Origins     73
Attitudes to Enterprise and Industry     87
Social Capital and Immigrant Entrepreneurship     112
Overcoming Scarcity: Capital and the Entrepreneur     137
Pursuing Innovation     165
Risk, Persistence, and Focus: A Lifecycle of the Entrepreneur     200
Conclusion: The Unsung Entrepreneur     234
Entrepreneurs in Case Analysis     253
Notes     257
Select Bibliography     274
Index     278

Editorial Reviews

"This is a very welcome contribution to New Zealand´s economic and social history. . . . Hunter highlights the essential role of the entrepreneur in New Zealand a century and more ago, and tells us a great deal about the colonial economy in the process."  —Dr. Jim McAloon, associate professor of history, Lincoln University

"A remarkable book. A comprehensive analysis of the forgotten founders of modern New Zealand: its entrepreneurs."  —Andrew Godley, professor, Centre for International Business History, University of Reading

From the Publisher