Rethinking Enterprise Policy: Can Failure Trigger New Understanding?

240 Pages·2010·1.337 MB·English

by  Simon Bridge (auth.)

Rethinking Enterprise
Policy
Can Failure Trigger New Understanding?
Simon Bridge
Rethinking Enterprise Policy
Also by Simon Bridge:
UNDERSTANDING ENTERPRISE, ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SMALL BUSINESS
(fi rst and second editions with Ken O’Neill and Stan Cromie, third edition with Ken
O’Neill and Frank Martin)
UNDERSTANDING THE SOCIAL ECONOMY AND THE THIRD SECTOR
(with Brendan Murtagh and Ken O’Neill)
Rethinking Enterprise
Policy
Can Failure Trigger New Understanding?
Simon Bridge
© Simon Bridge 2010
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2010 978-0-230-23558-8
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
publication may be made without written permission.
No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted
save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence
permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,
Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.
Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this
work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2010 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke,
Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries
ISBN 978-1-349-31398-3 ISBN 978-0-230-28983-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230289833
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully
managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing
processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the
country of origin.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bridge, Simon.
Rethinking enterprise policy : can failure trigger new
understanding? / Simon Bridge.
p. cm.
1. Industrial policy. 2. Entrepreneurship—Government policy.
3. Small business—Government policy. I. Title.
HD3611.B8775 2010
354'.234—dc22
2010023773
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
Contents
List of Tables vi
List of Figures vii
List of Illustrations ix
List of Cases x
Preface xi
Acknowledgements xiii
1 Introduction 1
Part I The Current Models and Approaches
2 Government Agenda 17
3 Models of the Influences on Entrepreneurship 37
4 The Problem: The Facts Do Not Fit the Theory 63
Part II Exploring the Position
5 Different Perspectives 81
6 Perspectives on Entrepreneurship and Enterprise 95
7 Nature or Nurture? 118
8 Comparisons 134
Part III An Alternative Model
9 An Enterprise is a Goal- Realisation Device 149
10 The Basis of Choice 160
11 The Social Dimension 177
12 An Alternative Approach 194
13 A View Forward 214
Index 223
v
List of Tables
2.1 The possible components of a policy framework 19
3.1 Attributes and resources, and how they are acquired 47
3.2 Interpretation of components of the GEM conceptual
model 49
3.3 Policy areas with an impact on the five factors 55
4.1 Variations in business start- up rates across the UK 74
5.1 Organisations and activities which are neither in the
public nor the private sector 85
6.1 E- numbers: Interpretation and some comparable uses 107
9.1 Reasons why people might want to work 151
9.2 Some of the means by which people can obtain resources
for life 153
9.3 Different kinds of entrepreneurs 154
9.4 How enterprise (and entrepreneurship) might be viewed
from venture and people perspectives 157
11.1 Some domains of social capital 184
11.2 The components of social capital? 189
vi
List of Figures
1.1 The transition route from data to wisdom 12
2.1 A diagram of a policy framework 18
2.2 T he OECD/EUROSTAT framework for entrepreneurship
indicators 27
3.1 The perceived key business start- up needs 39
3.2 A hierarchy of enterprise needs 42
3.3 A formula for entrepreneurial success 44
3.4 Shane’s model of the entrepreneurial process 46
3.5 Intentions model of entrepreneurial potential (simplified) 46
3.6 Attributes and resources model 47
3.7 GEM conceptual model (the total process) 49
3.8 The determinants of nascent entrepreneurship 51
3.9 Stevenson’s portrayal of the entrepreneurship system 52
3.10 Comprehensive model of factors leading to
entrepreneurial activity 53
3.11 Factors impacting entrepreneurship 54
3.12 Casson’s demand and supply of entrepreneurs 56
3.13 The layers of the small business support network 57
3.14 A default assumption about influences on
entrepreneurship? 58
3.15 Simple form of the OECD/EUROSTAT framework for
entrepreneurship indicators 60
4.1 Invest NI presentation of GEM TEA measurements 68
4.2 Plot of UK and Northern Ireland GEM TEA
indicators 2000–8 69
5.1 An economic development agency’s world view? 89
5.2 An individual’s world view at the start of working life? 90
6.1 Two dimensions of entrepreneurship: Stage and type 105
vii
viii List of Figures
6.2 E- numbers: A categorisation of enterprise and
entrepreneurship 108
7.1 Mechanisms through which genetic factors might
influence entrepreneurship 126
9.1 What you see is not everything 156
10.1 A ‘default’ model of the impact of an influence on crime 173
10.2 Predictions of the incidence of criminality in a society 174
12.1 The ‘default’ assumption about influencing
entrepreneurship? 201
12.2 A possible model of the level of entrepreneurship 202
12.3 Diagrammatic presentation of Ajzen’s Theory of Planned
Behaviour 208
List of Illustrations
1.1 Terminology: Is it enterprise or entrepreneurship? 2
2.1 Examples of the prominence of enterprise and
entrepreneurship in government policy 17
2.2 ‘Small Business’, ‘Entrepreneurship’ and
‘Enterprise’ policy 20
2.3 Stevenson’s summary of policy evolution 24
6.1 Recognising the process for what it is, rather than
what we would like it to be 113
7.1 Can the supply of entrepreneurs be increased? 127
8.1 An example of bridging the research– practice divide 139
8.2 What is the basis of policy? 143
10.1 Examples of the assumption of individual risk– return
analysis 166
10.2 The social brain 170
11.1 Measuring social capital 184
11.2 An analogy with vitamins? 187
11.3 Who are a person’s peers? 190
11.4 Entrepreneurship capital 190
12.1 Enterprise and deprivation: The rationale for UK public
policy 195
12.2 The bias of the ‘classic’ dissertation 200
12.3 Entrepreneurship and the Theory of Planned Behaviour 207
ix