What-to-do engineering is associated with the concept of entrepreneurial engineering (vs. traditional how-to-do-it engineering). Entrepreneurial engineering can be defined as the set of functions required to fill the front end of the design-produce-service pipeline with innovative technologies and technology-based products and services capable of providing significant growth, profitability, and sustainable competitive advantage.
Entrepreneurial engineering can be considered a subset of the more general field of entrepreneurship. While including the basic skills and knowledge required for successful entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial engineering focuses primarily on generating technology-based opportunities and the particular challenges of effectively identifying, acquiring, developing, and transferring technology into viable new products and services. (Polczynzki and Jaskolski, 2005)
