Unbundling enterprise and entrepreneurship: From perceptions and preconceptions to concept and practice

Enterprise, entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs are terms that are subject to particular depictions and representations that do not always reflect their actual nature. Publicly held and shared perceptions and preconceptions tend to lead to stereotypes, caricatures and distortions that preclude or obstruct real insight into these phenomena. A case is made for a reconsideration of the key terms, particularly via a grounding of analysis and experience in actual events and conditions. The paper concludes by defining entrepreneurship as being both a state - of being an entrepreneur, and a behaviour - of being entrepreneurial. From this perspective, entrepreneurship extends beyond limited conceptualizations of its close association with business start-up and growth to incorporate enterprising activity and dynamics across society and its institutions

Small business policy in the United Kingdom: the inheritance of the Small Business Service and implications for its future effectiveness

The launch of the Small Business Service in the United Kingdom stimulated a review of small business policy and support in the United Kingdom. The Service inherited a substantial number of policies and initiatives which have been criticised for their poorly stated aims and overall lack of coherence. The authors examine justifications for small business policy in Britain and the role of research in small business policymaking. They suggest that research has had relatively little impact, and some reasons why this has been the case. They also suggest ways of setting a small business research agenda-raising standards and ensuring the independence of research. Attention is given to the evaluation of small business policy and initiatives. It is argued that currently this is not sufficiently independent or rigorous, and the authors suggest remedies. Both quantitative and qualitative evaluation approaches are examined in order to redefine good practice. The overall aim is to suggest how the Small Business Service can be better supported by research and evaluation, enabling it to function more successfully than its predecessors

Making policy choices in nonfinancial business support: an international comparison

The paper reports an international literature review of advisory business support. Most industrialised countries provide a degree of business support to small and medium-sized firms, such as information and advice. It is normal for programmes to be justified using arguments about market failure and programme designers tend to weight different aspects of market failure leading to different policy choices. The paper was based upon a literature review of business support in OECD countries conducted in 2004. A visual analogue scale was developed based on the choices made by policy makers across OECD countries which developed a taxonomy of business support choices to enable both a more systematic comparison of, and to differentiate, programmes. There are a considerable number of choices that can be made regarding how a programme is designed and delivered for a specific set of market failures. The key result of the research is to suggest a hierarchy of policy choices. At the top are four choices: Who delivers? What 'type' of support? How is it rationed? And how is it funded? At a point in time when there are significant institutional changes in English business support the paper has the opportunity to contribute by making more explicit the policy choices in the area of business advice to small firms

Reconsidering private sector engagement in subnational economic governance

One consequence of the economic downturn and pressure for public sector reform is a renewed focus upon private sector engagement (PSE) within subnational economic governance. Yet past attempts to promote PSE within urban and regional development policy and governance have been routinely characterised by the partial and uneven involvement of business interests. Adopting a strategic–relational approach, and building upon insights from the developing literature on business–society relations, this paper critically examines how PSE unfolded in a specific spatial and temporal context, through empirical investigation of the evolution of the City Growth Strategy as realised within two areas in London. This analysis explores the difference between policy script and business performance and identifies key dimensions of material self-interest, nonmarket-based rationales, and divergent private/public discourses as critical to the selective nature of emergent PSE strategies and tactics. Critically, these issues remain largely unaddressed within current moves to put in place a private sector led subnational agenda, with clear consequences for understanding its likely impact across differentially constituted urban and regional contexts