SUSTAINING INNOVATION AND GROWTH: PUBLIC POLICY SUPPORT FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP

摘要

This paper seeks to provide a road map to the literature linking entrepreneurship to innovation and growth. This is neither an easy nor an obvious task because entrepreneurship does not correspond nicely with any established academic discipline such as economics, let alone any particular sub-discipline within economics, such as labor economics or industrial economics. Rather, the subject of entrepreneurship has been the topic of scholarship and research in a variety of academic fields, including but not limited to economics. The interdisciplinary nature of scholarship reflects the subject - entrepreneurship itself is a multifaceted, complex social and economic phenomenon. The purpose of this road map is to highlight aspects of entrepreneurship that can serve as a guiding principle to direct scholars and policy makers towards understanding the issues, the debates, the most important questions and matters, and in distinguishing what is known and has been established from areas at the frontier of research or those that need to be researched in the future. The paper begins with an explanation of the evolution of the role of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and why they have become more important over time. The theoretical links between entrepreneurship and economic performance are the focus of Section 3. These links are important because they provide the basis for considering entrepreneurship as a source for improving economic performance. The links between entrepreneurship and economic performance are considered across a variety of units of analysis, spanning from the firm to the region and the country. Section 4 examines the implications for public policy. Two important policy distinctions are made. The first is that, in contrast to the prevalent public policy approach in the post-World War II era restraining enterprises, the new policy focuses on enabling rather than constraining economic actors. The second is that entrepreneurship policy has an orientation that is distinct from traditional SME or small business policy.