Training for Entrepreneurship and New Businesses

Abstract

An important part of governmental industrial policy is to support entrepreneurship and the creation of new businesses through various programmes. These are often organized at regional or local level by support organizations such as innovation centres (at universities), regional development funds and science parks. Earlier studies of business support structures have focused mainly on the ‘demand’ side; that is, on participants' perceptions of the usefulness of taking part in different support programmes. These studies have shown that there is a mismatch between the supply and demand side in business support activities. This paper deals with the supply side's view of organizing support activities for entrepreneurs and new businesses. The author analyses the responses to a questionnaire survey of business support organizations in Sweden. The results show that the support organizations are well aware of the problems the participants have – relating to, among other things, time, educational methods, finance, priorities, and access to information. At the same time, the support organizations disagree with suggestions that they are too theoretical in their teaching, lack experience in the problems of small businesses, offer inflexible programmes, have problems communicating, or lack teaching expertise (in, for example, training programmes). This paper discusses the gap in perception between the suppliers and their market and addresses the policy issues it raises. The implications for training for entrepreneurship and new businesses are also addressed.