In Valuing an Entrepreneurial Enterprise, Audretsch and Link present a valuation method uniquely tailored to emerging technology-based ventures that have no revenue history to lean on. Their method draws on economic theory to formulate a solution to the problem.

About the Authors ; Introduction ; Innovative Activity: Alternative Economics Frameworks and Policy Approaches ; Valuation Methods: Tools of the Trade ; Traditionally Used Valuation Methods ; Applications of Traditionally Used Valuation Models ; Alternative Approaches to the Valuations of Video, Inc. ; Toward a Method for Valuing an Entrepreneurial Enterprise ; Valuation of Metal Brothers, Inc. ; Concluding Statement ; References ; Index

Entrepreneurship has become a crowded space today with scores of new books published each year. Many of these are just run-of-the-mill projects repeating what we already know. When a new book comes along that offers a fresh insight into a still under-researched area it is worth getting excited about. Valuing an Entrepreneurial Enterprise by Audretsch and Link, two of the leading scholars in the field, is just such a book. The book is about valuating a high technology firm (what is it worth) and they suggest that we should focus on complementary technologies not substitute products. In other words, the authors suggest that the existing yardsticks are not a good measure and may be misleading at best. They offer a new and novel approach for valuating an entrepreneurial venture.

"Entrepreneurship has become a crowded space today with scores of new books published each year. Many of these are just run-of-the-mill projects repeating what we already know. When a new book comes along that offers a fresh insight into a still under-researched area it is worth getting excited about. Valuing an Entrepreneurial Enterprise by Audretsch and Link, two of the leading scholars in the field, is just such a book. The book is about valuating a high technology firm (what is it worth) and they suggest that we should focus on complementary technologies not substitute products. In other words, the authors suggest that the existing yardsticks are not a good measure and may be misleading at best. They offer a new and novel approach for valuating an entrepreneurial venture."--Zoltan J. Acs, University Professor, George Mason University "In the midst of an entrepreneurship revolution sweeping the globe, David Audretsch and Albert Link astutely analyze one of the most important questions: how to value the new, entrepreneurial firm. Demonstrating that conventional valuation tools and economic analysis are inadequate to the task, the authors provide a valuable underpinning to the entrepreneurship movement."--Dr. Carl J. Schramm, President and CEO, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation "Small, technology-based start-ups renew and grow the economy by introducing new products to the market and are a key source of high-value employment. They make significant contributions to the nation's competitiveness. But, for the lack of proper methodology, the contributions of these firms have been inadequately valued. And, too frequently, that which is not valued fails to garner the necessary attention and support of policymakers. This is why this book is so important. David Audretsch and Albert Link clearly and carefully show that forecasting alternative or complementary technologies and estimating their market impact is the key method to valuing a high technology entrepreneurial enterprise. It is well done and extremely worthwhile for academics and policymakers alike."--Dr. Charles W. Wessner, Director, Technology, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship, The National Academies Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy "The valuation of the essential firm of the modern economy is being reconsidered. Valuing an Entrepreneurial Enterprise is a first step in this new approach and is bound to influence the world of valuation and valuators. After summarizing the traditional valuation techniques and illustrating them with examples, Audretsch and Link show that they are limited and sometimes misleading; hence, they are inapplicable to entrepreneurial firms. They develop a technique 'the key of which is to focus on and understand the availability of alternative or complementary technologies.' By comparing the role of small firms that shape the organization of industry to that of the entrepreneur shaping society, Audretsch arrived at the entrepreneur as the driver of growth in the modern economy. The intimate link between the value of a firm and its prospective contribution to growth make the two economists an obvious choice to write this book."--Journal of Economic Literature

David B. Audretsch is Distinguished Professor, Ameritech Chair of Economic Development, and Director of the Institute for Development Strategies at Indiana University. He is an Honorary Professor at the WHU-Otto Beisheim School of Management in Germany. In addition, he serves as a Visiting Professor at King Saud University in Saudi Arabia and as a Research Professor at Durham University, an External Director of Research at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, Honorary Professor at the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena in Germany. Audretsch's research has focused on the links among entrepreneurship, government policy, innovation, economic development, and global competitiveness. His research has been published in over one hundred scholarly articles in leading academic journals. His books include The Entrepreneurial Society (OUP, 2007) and Entrepreneurship and Economic Growth (OUP, 2006). Albert N. Link is Professor of Economics at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Technology Transfer. Professor Link's most recent books include Public Goods, Public Gains (OUP, 2010), Government as Entrepreneur (OUP, 2009), and Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Technological Change (OUP, 2007). Currently, he is serving as the vice-chairperson of the Innovation and Competitiveness Policies Committee of the United Nation's Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE).