We live in an age of future shock. Globalization, economic restructuring, advances in technology (particularly in information technology and open technology), changing values and lifestyles, the green movement, climate change, the Arab Spring, political instability, and regional conflicts mean that business entrepreneurs are faced with a rapidly changing business environment that most assuredly will be different from the present. The accelerating rate, magnitude, and complexity of change occurring in all sectors of global society have created vulnerabilities and opportunities across business environments. The purpose of this workshop is to identify driving forces that can affect the future global business environment, their indicators, and their implications for business entrepreneurs.

James L. Morrison is professor emeritus of educational leadership at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is the founding editor of Innovate (http://www.innovateonline.info), a peer refereed online journal now archived by Nova Southeastern University focusing on using information technology tools to enhance the educational process. He has served as vice president of the American Educational Research Association and as convener of the Forum on Environmental Scanning for The American Association for Higher Education. He has chaired the editorial board, The Review of Higher Education; and served as consulting editor of The Review of Educational Research and The American Educational Research Journal. He is the founding editor of On the Horizon (http://www.emeraldinsight.com/oth.htm) and The Technology Source (http://technologysource.org). He is author and co-author of over 250 publications focusing on educational planning and on using information technology tools in educational organizations. He received the Distinguished Scholar Award from the American Educational Research Association's Special Interest Group on Strategic Change at the 1999 annual meeting. His home page is at http://horizon.unc.edu

Professor Piero Formica is Founder of the International Entrepreneurship Academy and has been till his retirement on 31 December 2009 Professor of Economics with special focus on innovation and entrepreneurship at the Jonkoping International Business School. Currently, he is Senior Research Fellow of the INNOVATIONAL VALUE INSTITUTE, (a consortium fonded by Intel, National University of Ireland and Boston Consulting Group) at the National University of Ireland, where he leads an international research team on experimentation and simulation of high-expectation startu-ups. Piero is Guest Professor of Knowledge Economics, Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Tartu, Estonia, and at the Faculty of Entrepreneurship, University of Tehran