From the Special Issue Editor: Entrepreneurship: Past Accomplishment and Future Challenges

me to edit the Journal’s 2003 special issue. As with many opportunities, the initial thrill was followed quickly by uncertainty. Like any strategist, I wondered how to deploy this resource in order to create the most value for the field of management. Looking to the past, the two previous special issues took much different approaches to adding value. The 2001 issue edited by Rhonda Reger consisted of refereed articles focused on one theme: managing in the information age. Micki Kacmar’s 2002 issue adopted the Journal’s traditional Yearly Review of Management approach of inviting prominent authors to provide state-of-the-art reviews of various key topics. I decided to take wisdom from both of my recent predecessors. Like the 2001 edition, this special issue is devoted to a single topic of dramatic academic and practical importance. Like the 2002 edition, this issue provides a forum for in-depth knowledge consolidation and forward thinking by leading scholars. Entrepreneurship is the theme I chose. Entrepreneurs have shaped the world around us. If you shopped at a Wal-Mart recently, you were part of the realization of Sam Walton’s en-trepreneurial vision. The software and microprocessor in your computer probably trace their lineage to the entrepreneurial ideas of Bill Gates and Andy Grove. Visionaries like Ray Kro