Torben Bager

Entrepreneurship policy as institutionalised and powerful myths

Entrepreneurship policy emerges, as other policy fields, across formal and informal institutional boundaries and should, according to rational reasoning, be tailored to specific institutional contexts. However, policies do not always adjust well to the rational needs in each institutional context. Certain policies and the way they are implemented may also disseminate from one nation to another. A prime reason for this tendency to harmonisation is the existence of policy communities across institutional boundaries. Researchers talk with researchers, policy makers with policy makers, etc. - and they often cross-fertilise. Such interaction tends to lead to legitimised conceptualisations of challenges and needed policies. These conceptualisations are built on and legitimised by rational arguments, but may in fact be only loosely connected to the specific situation and challenges of an institutional entity. These neo-institutional ideas about how entrepreneurship policy is formed are outlined in this article and supported with empirical evidence from a comparative study of entrepreneurship policy in Australia and Denmark.

Intrapreneurs, entrepreneurs and spin off entrepreneurs: Similarities and differences

The topic concerning intrapreneurs pursuing new ventures within established firms is underresearched, despite the booming literature on corporate venturing. We know little about whether intrapreneurs are especially competent, proactive, innovative, growth-oriented and risk takers – and how well they perform. These issues are addressed by comparing intrapreneurs with commoners and with entrepreneurs starting new firms, and also by comparing spin-off entrepreneurs starting a new firm based on an existing firm with independent entrepreneurs. Our comparisons use two data sets: our Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) survey of adults in Denmark with follow-up interviews of intrapreneurs, entrepreneurs and commoners, and our survey of newly established entrepreneurs in a typical county in Denmark. Comparisons reveal that intrapreneurs are more competent and growth-oriented than entrepreneurs. Likewise, spin-off entrepreneurs are more competent and growth-oriented than independent entrepreneurs, and spin-off firms quickly reach higher performance. These similarities and differences among intrapreneurs, spin-off entrepreneurs and independent entrepreneurs offer directions for a deeper understanding of both internal and external venturing.

Enrollment of SME managers to growth-oriented training programs

Purpose – Entrepreneurial learning through formal growth-oriented training programs for SME managers promises to enhance the growth competences and growth intentions of the enrolled managers. The impact of such programs, however, depends on who enrolls since initial competence and growth-intention levels vary significantly. Potential participants may suffer from limited ability to transform new knowledge into practice, absence of growth intention and too high or too low a prior competence level to be able to benefit substantially. Selection and self-selection processes therefore have a bearing on the extent to which such programs result in additionality, i.e. improved growth performance compared to non-intervention. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – Selection and self-selection processes are explored through a study of a large-scale training program for growth-oriented managers of small Danish firms. This program has, from 2012 to 2015, trained about 700 SME managers. D...

Special interest in decision making in entrepreneurship policy

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of the special interests of key decision makers in entrepreneurship policy formation at the national level. The core question is: what is the role that special interests play in a situation with significantly improved evidence through a growing number of high-quality international benchmark studies on entrepreneurial performance. Design/methodology/approach – An ethnographic method is applied to analyse in depth the 2005 decision by the Danish Government to shift from a volume-oriented to a growth-oriented entrepreneurship policy. This decision process is an extreme case since Denmark has world-class evidence of its entrepreneurial performance. Findings – Even in such a well-investigated country, which since 2000 has had a pioneering role in the development of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor study and international register-based studies, the special interests of a few top-level politicians and civil servants have significantly influenced ...

Understanding International Entrepreneurship Through Ethnic Business: The Case of Chinese Business Networking Across the Globe

Entrepreneurs enter the global business scene with a global mindset and trust in business partners around the world.While the global mindset is attained as result of reflection based on international experience, trust develops through existing social structures that sometimes transcend national borders, particularly if they are distinctly ethnic social structures.Entrepreneurs, then, may enter the global scene with a global mindset and add trust-based relationships as they gain encouraging experiences with international business partners, or they may enter with trust and develop a global mindset as they engage in international activities. Ethnic business networking operates primarily on trust-based relationships.Created by immigrants over a long period of time, these networks are traditionally confined to localities. More and more local and national co-ethnic networks, however, are supplemented by international co-ethnic networks in larger regions.Chinese-owned firms and networks, which have experienced globalization at three distinct levels, illustrate the growing global interconnectedness of ethnic businesses as the overall trend. Although ethnic entrepreneurs generally maintain strong ties with business partners at the same geographical level and weaker ties with partners across the levels, observations of partnerships such as that between Silicon Valley and Taiwan suggest that ethnic business networking also involves collaboration between global-minded ethnic entrepreneurs and more traditional ethnic entrepreneurs in other parts of the world.In addition to local, ethnic partnerships, entrepreneurs may eventually take on more and more global, non-ethnic partnerships. (SAA)

Knowledge Exchange and Management Research: Barriers and Potentials

The growing involvement of management researchers in knowledge exchange activities and collaborative research does not seem to be reflected in a growing academic output. The purpose of this paper is to explore barriers for the limited academic output from these activities as well as the potential for ‘interesting’ papers.,The paper uses secondary data and statistics as well as an illustrative case study to trace knowledge exchange activities and barriers for academic output based on these activities.,The paper identifies a number of barriers for the turning of data derived from knowledge exchange activities into academic papers such as low priority of case study research in leading management journals, a growing practice orientation in the research funding systems, methodological challenges because of limited researcher control and disincentives for researcher involvement in knowledge exchange activities. The paper also identifies a potential for ‘interesting’ research and discoveries through collaborative research.,Diminishing the barriers for collaborative and case-based research and exploring the potential for ‘interesting’ discoveries has the potential to increase the number of published papers with a high level of scientific rigor as well as a high level of relevance for practice.,An outcome focus on the relationship between knowledge exchange activities and management research is to the author’s knowledge new in the debate about weak practical relevance of management research.