This book addresses the lack of current research concerning disadvantage using an entrepreneurial ecosystem lens, and the failure of entrepreneurship policy to widen engagement in entrepreneurship for disadvantaged people and places.

Delve deep into the heart of entrepreneurial ecosystems in lesser-known regions across the globe, as we unravel the complex tapestry of factors that drive their growth and sustainability. This book offers a rich exploration of diverse ecosystems in Brazil, South Africa, the islands of Madagascar and Reunion, Norway, and countries in Central and Eastern Europe. Through a diverse array of perspectives and real-world experiences, it reveals the drivers and challenges shaping entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystems worldwide. Discover the critical role of factors like regional leadership, social entrepreneurs, supportive policies, and cultural dynamics, and see how regions overcome challenges through innovation and resilience. Ideal for policymakers, scholars, and entrepreneurs, this book bridges the gap between theory and practice. Entrepreneurial Ecosystems: Drivers, Challenges and Success of Territories is not just a collection of research. It's a roadmap to building vibrant entrepreneurial communities packed with practical guidance and transformative ideas. Whether you are aiming to nurture an entrepreneurial ecosystem or seeking inspiration from global success stories, this book is an indispensable resource for anyone passionate about the future of entrepreneurship and innovation. Join us on this captivating journey and be part of shaping vibrant entrepreneurial regions around the world.

Can entrepreneurship serve as a pathway out of poverty? Are the poor able to create ventures that can improve their economic circumstances and enhance their lives? Poverty, Disadvantage and the Promise of Enterprise: A Capabilities Perspective argue that “it depends”. To understand the poverty and entrepreneurship interface, we must first understand poverty. Using a lens of disadvantage theory and the capabilities framework, the book explores the implications of poverty’s complex, multi-dimensional nature when one is trying to start and grow a business. Four key liabilities directly impact the opportunities these individuals are able to recognize, the types of ventures they create, how the businesses perform, and the impacts on the well-being of the entrepreneur. Because of these liabilities, these ventures tend to fall into what the authors call the commodity trap, where they struggle with low sales volumes and marginal profits. However, the trap is avoidable, and, with the right kinds of support, the performance of these ventures can be meaningfully improved. Key design elements of a successful intervention approach, together with an alternative perspective on the roles of community-based entrepreneurial ecosystems and public policy, are introduced. Emphasis is also placed on the critical roles of faith, hustle, and the fears of both failure and success.

This is a guide to understanding entrepreneurial ecosystems: what they are, why they matter, and to whom they matter. Ben Spigel explores this popular new theory of economic development, locating the intellectual roots of ecosystems, explaining the practices and processes that allow ecosystems to support the creation and growth of innovative entrepreneurial firms.

Necessity entrepreneurs are individuals in developing countries who start small enterprises out of necessity. While they range from street sellers to educated hopefuls with little access to formal employment, the one thing that unites them is the need

Entrepreneurship and innovation are increasingly viewed as key contributors to global economic and social development. University-based entrepreneurship ecosystems (U-BEEs) provide a supportive context in which entrepreneurship and innovation can thrive. In that vein, this book provides critical insight based on cutting-edge analyses of how to frame, design, launch, and sustain efforts in the area of entrepreneurship. Seven success factors were derived from an in-depth analysis of six leading, and very different, university-based entrepreneurship ecosystems in North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia. These seven success factors are: (1) senior leadership vision, engagement and sponsorship; (2) strong programmatic and faculty leadership; (3) sustained commitment over a long period of time; (4) commitment of substantial financial resources; (5) commitment to continuing innovation in curriculum and programs; (6) an appropriate organizational infrastructure; and (7) commitment to building the extended enterprise and achieving critical mass. Based on these success factors, the authors provide a series of recommendations for the development of a comprehensive university-based entrepreneurship ecosystem. This major assessment of how best to drive university-based entrepreneurship ecosystems is essential reading for anyone involved in higher education (particularly provosts, deans, and professors), government agencies concerned with socio-economic development, and all those concerned with helping entrepreneurship ecosystems to flourish.

The concept of 'entrepreneurial ecosystems' has emerged as a means for theorizing and making policy-decisions concerning entrepreneurship and economic development within and across cities and regions. Entrepreneurial Ecosystems in Cities and Regions assembles original contributions from scholars across the world to provide an in-depth analysis of a concept that has the capability to capture a dynamic global economy with entrepreneurial innovation at the crux of its future development. It addresses wider issues concerning the evolution of new forms of industrial organisation. The book develops an agenda and understanding that aims to build upon the early explosion of interest within academic, policy, and practice circles by providing new and important insights that contribute to knowledge, direct future investigations, and to increase the effectiveness of research-based policy and practice. Entrepreneurial Ecosystems in Cities and Regions builds a framework for establishing a robust and sustainable concept that can help propel an understanding of how cities and regions around the world can use entrepreneurship and innovation as a catalyst for their future economic, social, and environmental development. The volume highlights the need to account for urban and regional contextual factors when determining the strength or otherwise of entrepreneurial ecosystems, and illustrates that these factors can lead to the development of entrepreneurial activity of quite a different nature across cities and regions.

The Missing Entrepreneurs 2017 is the fourth edition in a series of publications that examine how public policies at national, regional and local levels can support job creation, economic growth and social inclusion by overcoming obstacles to business start-ups and self-employment by people from disadvantaged or under-represented groups in entrepreneurship. It shows that there is substantial potential to combat unemployment and increase labour market participation by facilitating business creation in populations such as women, youth, the unemployed, and migrants. However, the specific problems they face need to be recognised and addressed with effective and efficient policy measures. This edition contains in-depth policy discussion chapters on the quality of self-employment, including new forms of self-employment such as dependent and false self-employment, and the potential of self-employment as an adjustment mechanism in major firm restructuring and job shedding. Each thematic chapter discusses current policy issues and challenges, and makes recommendations for policy makers. A data section provides a range of information on self-employment and business creation rates, barriers and key characteristics of businesses operated by social group. Finally, country profiles highlight recent trends in inclusive entrepreneurship, key policy challenges and recent policy actions in each of the 28 EU Member States.

Based on extensive fieldwork, this book demonstrates how gender is an organizing principle of entrepreneurial ecosystems and makes a difference in how ecosystem resources are assembled and how they can be accessed. By bringing visibility to how ecosystem actors are heterogeneous across identities, interactions and experiences, the book highlights the role and complexity of individual, organizational, and institutional factors working in concert to create and maintain gendered inequities. Entrepreneurial Ecosystems provides research-driven insights around effective organizational practices and policies aimed at remedying gendered and intersectional inequalities associated with entrepreneurship activities and economic growth. Proposing a typology of four ecosystem identities, it highlights how some might be more amenable and organized towards gender inclusion and change, while others may be much more difficult to change, reorganize and restructure. It offers scholars, students, practitioners and policymakers insights about gender in relation to analyzing entrepreneurial ecosystems and for fostering inclusive economic development policies.

Entrepreneurship at a glance presents an original collection of indicators for measuring the state of entrepreneurship, and provides explanation on the policy context and the interpretation of the data.