Abstract
A Research Agenda for Entrepreneurship Policy is the latest in the extensive ‘Elgar Research Agendas’ series and is edited by Friederike Welter and the late David Smallbone. It brings together an impressive range of authors to interrogate entrepreneurship policy internationally. The importance of the topic and the potential impact of policies that seek to encourage and support start-up and small firms is clearly established throughout the collection of chapters. Despite the importance of these policy agendas, authors such as Blackburn and Schaper (2012) have identified persistent challenges to their success: poor learning from previous experience, poor use of the evidence base or rigorous evaluation, and poor collaboration and information sharing between relevant parties. Entrepreneurship policy is therefore a topic in need of rigorous study and evidence-based debate.
In their introduction, Smallbone and Welter set out an agenda for both entrepreneurship policy researchers and policy makers. For researchers, they emphasise the need for clarity around who policy makers are and the importance of understanding contextual factors. They highlight the value in differentiating between the four stages of the policy process: agenda setting, policy formulation, implementation, and evaluation. Ultimately, it is established that there is an important agenda in policy researchers and policy makers working more effectively together. The mix of contributors to this book, with backgrounds in entrepreneurship policymaking and research helps to demonstrate the potential value of such collaboration.
The book is divided into two sections. In the first section, ‘Key themes in entrepreneurship policy’, a collection of high-profile authors in the field discuss central issues for research on entrepreneurship policy. The second section, ‘National case studies’, is more analytical and includes studies of entrepreneurship in a range of international contexts, including by authors who have been involved in the policy initiatives themselves. Throughout the book, there is a clear sense of collaborative discussions between academic researchers and policymaking practitioners that helps to generate interesting insights.
The first section includes chapters on: fundamental limitations and ‘blindspots’ in the UK enterprise policy agenda (C2); the challenges of enterprise policy transfer internationally (C3); entrepreneurship policy evaluation (C4); and policies to support internationalisation (C5). Taken cumulatively, these chapters establish very clearly that there are a multitude of fundamental problems and outstanding challenges in entrepreneurship policy, reinforcing the urgent need for a new research agenda in this area. The authors establish a variety of useful ways of thinking about what such a research agenda might look like.
The second section includes case studies that discuss different challenges for policymakers and different objectives for entrepreneurship policies. These case studies focus on: the relatively new entrepreneurship policy agenda in China (C6); the relatively small contribution of SMEs to the economy of Russia, accompanied by some negative perceptions of entrepreneurs (C7); modernisation and closing the ‘technology gap’ in Poland (C8); addressing a trend of decline of SMEs in Japan (C9); mobile technologies and economic development in Sub Saharan Africa (C10); and enhancing entrepreneurship in South African townships (C11). Reading across these very different contexts, there are also common themes such as coordination of SME support, attempts to improve regulatory and tax environments, access to finance, promoting entrepreneurship through the education system and efforts to improve productivity.
The common themes that emerge across the varying contexts returns the reader to reflection on the earlier chapters. For example, a key theme worthy of future study, given the international nature of entrepreneurship policy and the importance of context, is policy transfer. Xheneti’s early chapter highlights that the relevance of the policy transfer/translation literature, which focuses on the agency of policymakers in selecting and translating evidence. Xheneti argues that this approach may have more to offer to enterprise policy studies in their quest to understand the influences on the policy process, the actors that are involved in the travel of ideas, and how these actors interact with the local context of policy making. (p. 35)
It is in this way that the earlier chapters can help to further illuminate the empirical case studies and through which the book generates important topics of discussion and potential paths for the future of entrepreneurship policy research.
The detailed consideration of central issues in entrepreneurship policy and the analysis of varied contexts ensure that this book is of interest to both policy researchers and policy makers. It covers an impressive range of topics and international contexts and, in doing so, works very effectively as a collection. Ultimately, the book is successful in fulfilling its central purpose in elaborating a detailed agenda for entrepreneurship policy research.