Community Development Venture Capital: Concept and Status Quo in Germany

As most other countries, Germany also faces dramatic regional differences in terms of socioeconomic development. One important driver of such development is the existence of a healthy entrepreneurial activity and the creation of new companies. We argue that venture capital (VC) and especially community development venture capital (CDVC) can be a powerful instrument to stimulate entrepreneurship and to support the growth of ambitious companies. Hence, the present paper deals with the general questions, whether there are regional gaps in the supply of VC in Germany? Whether these regional gaps do geographically correspond to the most deprived areas in Germany, and which kind of VC companies are currently in place in order to close potential regional gaps? Geographically, we find that the north-eastern part of Germany is far more deprived than the rest of the country, but is relatively well supplied with VC. Nevertheless, the primary potential target area for CDVC activities in the country is the federal state of Brandenburg in this area. Our assessment of German players in the VC market reveals that some public VC companies do investments similar to CDVC. However, these companies do not offer real hands-on support for entrepreneurs, and real CDVC engagement in the country is yet to come

Innovation policy as cargo cult:Myth and reality in knowledge-led productivity growth

In the immediate post-Second World War years a series of millenarian movements known as “cargo cults”3 swept through Melanesia. They emerged in the aftermath of intensive US contact in the course of the Second World War. These contacts led to a substantial increase in the material goods available to Melanesian islanders, but the end of the war meant that such material goods became less available as military withdrawal occurred. In these circumstances cargo cults emerged in which prophets would promise the return of cargoes of material goods by their ancestors (often expected to take the form of the Americans) with cargo typically shipped in the airplanes that had been such a common feature of the war experience. The means by which the return of the cargo was to be encouraged varied between different cults in different islands, but frequently involved the ritual preparation and construction of a variety of structures such as airfields, storage facilities, landing strips and associated paraphernalia. Cult members were encouraged to abandon previous cultural practices and often mimicked the behavioural characteristics of Americans (Worsley, 1957; Jarvie, 1964). The emergence of these cults did not lead to the return of material cargo