Author Biography

Heidi M. Neck, PhD, is a Babson College professor and the Jeffry A. Timmons Professor ofEntrepreneurial Studies. She has taught entrepreneurship at the undergraduate, MBA, and executivelevels. She is the academic director of the Babson Academy, a dedicated unit within Babsonthat inspires change in the way universities, specifically their faculty and students, teach and learnentrepreneurship. The Babson Academy builds on Neck's work starting the Babson Collaborative, aglobal institutional membership organization for colleges and universities seeking to increase theircapability and capacity in entrepreneurship education, and her leadership of Babson's Symposia forEntrepreneurship Educators (SEE), programs designed to inspire faculty from around the world toteach more experientially and entrepreneurially. Neck has directly trained more than 3,500 facultyaround the world in the art and craft of teaching entrepreneurship. An award-winning teacher, Neckhas been recognized for teaching excellence at Babson for undergraduate, graduate, and executive education.She has also been recognized by international organizations, the Academy of Management andUSASBE, for excellence in pedagogy and course design. In 2016, The Schulze Foundation awarded herEntrepreneurship Educator of the Year for pushing the frontier of entrepreneurship education in highereducation. She was again recognized as Entrepreneurship Educator of the Year in 2022 by the UnitedStates Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE) for her contributions that havesubstantively advanced how scholars think and approach entrepreneurship teaching and learning.Most recently, Neck was the recipient of the 2023 Karl Vesper Pioneer Award from the ExperientialClassroom at Notre Dame for her work to expand the reach and impact of entrepreneurship education.Her research interests include entrepreneurship education with a specific interest in building entrepreneurialmindsets. Neck is the lead author of Teaching Entrepreneurship: A Practice-Based Approach,Volumes 1 and 2 (Elgar), books written to help educators teach entrepreneurship in more experientialand engaging ways. Additionally, she has published 40+ book chapters, research monographs, andrefereed articles in such journals as Journal of Small Business Management, Entrepreneurship Theory &Practice, and Entrepreneurship Education & Pedagogy.Neck speaks and teaches internationally on cultivating the entrepreneurial mindset and espousing thepositive force of entrepreneurship as a societal change agent. She consults and trains organizations of allsizes on building entrepreneurial capacity. She is the cofounder of VentureBlocks, an education-technologycompany, and achieved a successful exit with FlowDog, a canine aquatic fitness and rehabilitation centerlocated just outside of Boston. She also served on the board of a 100% family-owned, seventh-generationland-management company in Louisiana, A. Wilbert's & Sons. Heidi earned her PhD in StrategicManagement and Entrepreneurship from the University of Colorado at Boulder. She holds a BS inMarketing from Louisiana State University and an MBA from the University of Colorado, Boulder.Dr. Christopher P. Neck, PhD, is currently an associate professor of Management at Arizona StateUniversity, where he held the title "University Master Teacher." From 1994 to 2009, he was part ofthe Pamplin College of Business faculty at Virginia Tech. He received his PhD in Management fromArizona State University and his MBA from Louisiana State University. Neck is author and/or coauthorof 27 books, including Self-Leadership: The Definitive Guide to Personal Excellence (1st ed., 2017,Sage; 2nd ed., 2019, Sage); Get a Kick Out of Life: Expect the Best of Your Body, Mind, and Soul at Any Age(2017, Clovercroft Publishing); Fit to Lead: The Proven 8-week Solution for Shaping Up Your Body, YourMind, and Your Career (1st ed., 2004, St. Martin's Press; 2nd ed., 2012, Carpenter's Sons Publishing);Mastering Self-Leadership: Empowering Yourself for Personal Excellence, 6th ed. (2013, Pearson); TheWisdom of Solomon at Work (2001, Berrett-Koehler); For Team Members Only: Making Your WorkplaceTeam Productive and Hassle-Free (1997, Amacom Books); and Medicine for the Mind: Healing Wordsto Help You Soar, 4th ed. (Wiley, 2012). Neck is also the coauthor of the principles of managementtextbook, Management: A Balanced Approach to the 21st Century (1st ed., 2013, Wiley; 2nd ed., 2017,Wiley; 3rd ed. 2021, Sage); an introduction to entrepreneurship textbook, Entrepreneurship (1st ed.,2017, Sage; 2nd ed., 2020, Sage); an introduction to organizational behavior textbook, OrganizationalBehavior (1st ed., 2017, Sage; 2nd ed., 2019, Sage), and an introduction to business textbook(Introduction to Business, 2022, Sage).Dr. Neck's research specialties include employee/executive fitness, self-leadership, leadership, groupdecision-making processes, and self-managing teams. He has over 150 publications in the form ofbooks, chapters, and articles in various journals. Some of the outlets in which Neck's work has appearedinclude Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, The Journal of Organizational Behavior,The Academy of Management Executive, Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, The Journal of ManagerialPsychology, Executive Excellence, Human Relations, Human Resource Development Quarterly, Journal ofLeadership Studies, Educational Leadership, and The Commercial Law Journal.Neck is the deputy editor of the Journal of Leadership and Management. Due to Neck's expertise inmanagement, he has been cited in numerous national publications including The Washington Post, TheWall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The Houston Chronicle, and the Chicago Tribune.Dr. Neck was recently voted as a semi-finalist (out of 140 nominations) for the prestigious international2020 Baylor University Cherry Award for Great Teaching. He finished in the top 6 of all nominations.Neck was also the recipient of the 2007 Business Week Favorite Professor Award. He is featured on as one of the approximately 20 professors from across the world receiving this award.Dr. Neck has taught over 70,000 students during his career in higher education. Neck currently teachesa mega section of Management Principles to approximately 900 students at Arizona State University.Neck was the recipient of the 2020 John W. Teets Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award(voted by W.P Carey students). Neck also received the Order of Omega Outstanding Teaching Awardfor 2012. This award is awarded to 1 professor at Arizona State by the Alpha Lamda Chapter of thisleadership fraternity. His class sizes at Virginia Tech filled rooms up to 2500 students. He receivednumerous teaching awards during his tenure at Virginia Tech, including the 2002 Wine Award forTeaching Excellence. Also, Neck was the 10-time winner (1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006,2007, 2008, and 2009) of the Students' Choice Teacher of the Year Award (voted by the students for thebest teacher of the year within the entire university). Also, some of the organizations who have participatedin Neck's management development training include Anavate Partners, Mountainside Fitness,GE/Toshiba, Busch Gardens, Clark Construction, the United States Army, Crestar, American FamilyInsurance, Sales and Marketing Executives International, American Airlines, American ElectricPower, W. L. Gore & Associates, Dillard's Department Stores, and Prudential Life Insurance. Neck isalso an avid runner. He has completed 12 official marathons and over 100 unofficial ones, includingthe Boston Marathon, New York City Marathon, and the San Diego Marathon. In fact, his personalrecord for a single long-distance run is a 48-mile run.Emma L. Murray, BA, HDip, DBS IT, completed a bachelor of arts degree in English and Spanish atUniversity College Dublin (UCD) in County Dublin, Ireland, followed by a higher diploma (HDip)in business studies and information technology at the Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business inCounty Dublin, Ireland. Following her studies, Emma spent nearly a decade in investment bankingbefore becoming a full-time writer and author.Emma has worked on numerous texts, including business and economics, self-help, and psychology.She is the coauthor of the principles of management textbook, Management: A Balanced Approachto the 21st Century (1st ed., 2013, Wiley; 2nd ed., 2017, Wiley; 3rd, ed., 2021, Sage); an introductionto entrepreneurship textbook, Entrepreneurship (1st ed., 2017, Sage; 2nd ed., 2020, Sage); an introductionto organizational behavior textbook, Organizational Behavior (1st ed., 2017, Sage; 2nd ed., [2019],Sage; 3rd ed., 2024, Sage), and an introduction to business textbook, Introduction to Business (2024,Sage). She lives in London, United Kingdom, with her husband and 2 children.

Review

"A book on entrepreneurship that is updated, current and relevant to the boomers, gen X, gen Y and the Millennials. It is a playbook, not a dry textbook. Readers can change their lives, perspectives and business models with this work."--Paula A. White
"A solid, practical approach to entrepreneurship where the authors challenge students to think rather than just memorize for the exams."--Dr. Martin Bressler
"A very good primer on business startups in the twenty first century. The book is practice oriented, well-written and includes a good overview of the key areas of importance for the budding entrepreneur."--Robert W. Robertson
"I really like the chapter on design thinking; IT TEACHES STUDENTS HOW TO THINK (outside the box), to identify an idea and develop it."--Bill Zannini
"I think the greatest strength of the book is that it is CLEAR YET INSIGHTFUL. It felt easy to read, while providing deep and important knowledge about entrepreneurship."--Laurent Josien
"I think this book is STRONG, LEADING EDGE VIEW of modern entrepreneurship. The three chapters I reviewed did a wonderful job of presenting the entrepreneurial mindset, design thinking, and failing forward."--Charlie Nagelschmidt
"I think [the coverage of learning from failure] is a welcome change! Students learn so much by hearing strategies of overcoming ′what went wrong′ and how to do it right the next time. I COMMEND THE AUTHORS for taking this approach and am glad that they included this vital part of the entrepreneurial process."--Amy Gresock
"It SPEAKS FRANKLY ABOUT SUBJECTS in a personal manner that most other textbooks don't address--like worry and fear."--Timothy Ritter
"Neck takes research and translates it into practical examples. This is a textbook that entrepreneurs will read. Essentially, I see this as the NEW PERFECT ENTREPRENEURSHIP TEXT."--Ryan Kauth
"Only book that is updated and current, reflecting new developments in society in the era of internet/social media."--Ram Kesavan
"Professors (and students) serious about entrepreneurship as a practice will choose this text."--Susan Berston
"This is a good solid basic book that could be helpful to students as they become serious about entrepreneurship. This book isn′t full of fluff that isn′t useful. It is a book that provides students the opportunity to develop skills that will be useful as they begin to develop as entrepreneurs."--Nancy Kucinski

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