Showing papers in "Journal of Entrepreneurship and Public Policy in 2012"

Context Matters: Institutions and Entrepreneurship

Abstract: This survey explores the important connection between institutions and entrepreneurship. Institutions consist of the formal and informal “rules of the game.” Entrepreneurs act within a context determined by these rules. The rules of the game create payoffs that make certain entrepreneurial opportunities more attractive than others. We explore the relevant literature from institutional economics and entrepreneurial studies, focusing on the important link between the two. Particular emphasis is placed on entrepreneurship within several different institutional settings — private for-profit, private nonprofit, and political — as well as the impact of entrepreneurship on institutions. We conclude by discussing the implications for future research on the topic. * We would like to thank the editors and an anonymous referee for detailed comments and suggestions. We would also like to thank Zac Rolnik for his patience and assistance throughout the process of preparing and revising this survey. Earlier versions of this survey were presented at the Mason Entrepreneurship Research Conference (MERC) Annual Conference, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, March 28, 2008 and at the IHS Social Change Workshop, Brown University, Providence, RI, June 23, 2008. We would like to thank the participants for their comments and suggestions. Full text available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1561/0300000018

Tackling entrepreneurship in the informal economy: evaluating the policy options

Abstract: Purpose – Although there is emerging an understanding that many entrepreneurs conduct some or all of their transactions off‐the‐books, there has so far been little attempt to consider what can and should be done about entrepreneurship in the informal economy. The purpose of this paper is to bridge this gap.Design/methodology/approach – Following a review of what is known about the prevalence and nature of informal entrepreneurship, this paper evaluates what can and should be done about informal entrepreneurs by analyzing the various policy options and their implications.Findings – Evaluating the possible policy approaches of doing nothing, eradication, de‐regulation and facilitating formalisation, the finding is that doing nothing leaves intact the existing negative impacts on formal and informal businesses, customers and governments, whilst eradicating informal entrepreneurship results in governments stamping out precisely the entrepreneurship and enterprise culture that they wish to nurture, and de‐regu...

Creative destruction and productivity: entrepreneurship by type, sector and sequence

Abstract: Purpose – Schumpeter claimed the entrepreneur to be instrumental for creative destruction and industrial dynamics Entrepreneurial entry serves to transform and revitalize industries, thereby enhan

A (partial) review of entrepreneurship literature across disciplines

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to stimulate researchers’ interest by acquainting them with some aspects of the entrepreneurship literature they may not have known.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is a non‐meta‐analytic literature review of several literatures in entrepreneurship.Findings – The entrepreneurship literature is vast and can be found in every discipline where humans and their behaviour are the object of analysis.Research limitations/implications – Because the entrepreneurship literature is so large and widespread, the paper reviews only a small, deliberately chosen sample of the literature.Originality/value – To the authors’ knowledge, no one has previously written a unified review of the market entrepreneurship, political entrepreneurship, and public choice.

Counseling assistance, entrepreneurship education, and new venture performance

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to apply the theory of guided preparation to investigate the relative impact of outside counseling assistance and entrepreneurship courses on new venture creation and performance.Design/methodology/approach – To attain a sample of nascent entrepreneurs who had been impacted by entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial counseling, 256 individuals who received counseling from the Pennsylvania Small Business Development Center in 1996 or 1998 were surveyed. The authors ran a logistic regression model using venture start‐up as the categorical dependent variable to investigate whether entrepreneurial education and counseling had an influence on the creation of new ventures. To test whether entrepreneurial education or counseling had a long‐term impact on the growth of new ventures, hierarchical regression analyses were run using employment in 2003 as the dependent variable. Various control variables were used for both sets of analyses.Findings – Findings indicate tha...

Trade openness and cultural creative destruction

Abstract: Purpose – This paper seeks to analyze empirically the net effect of trade openness on “economic culture”, measured by indicators of trust, respect, level of self‐determination, and obedience. Openness to international trade means that societies are more likely to be exposed to alternative attitudes, beliefs, ideas, and values leading to a Schumpeterian process of creative destruction whereby culture is destroyed on some margins and enhanced on others.Design/methodology/approach – Using data on trade openness from Quinn and Sachs and Warner, the paper empirically evaluates the impact of trade openness on economic culture. The paper's measure of culture is taken from Tabellini and Williamson and Kerekes, where data from the World Values Survey is aggregated to create a culture variable. The paper isolates the impact of trade policies on economic culture through a variety of empirical strategies including both panel and cross sectional analysis.Findings – The central finding of the study is that a society's ...

Why do nascent entrepreneurs use external assistance programs

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study support factors influencing the entrepreneur's use of external assistance programs and explain why some entrepreneurs obtain support from these programs while others do not. The proposed framework suggests that outside assistance programs are a support option of last resort that entrepreneurs utilize only when the start‐up team and personal network are incapable of providing support.Design/methodology/approach – Data from the Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics I are used to perform logistic regression of use of assistance programs on the entrepreneur's human capital and characteristics of the start‐up team and personal network.Findings – A total of 26 percent of entrepreneurs in the sample made contact with assistance programs. Regression results suggest that entrepreneurs who are more educated and experienced, rely extensively on the start‐up team, have a less experienced start‐up team, and have larger personal networks are more likely to use assistanc...

Entrepreneurial action and the rules of the game

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this editorial is to introduce the Journal of Entrepreneurship and Public Policy (JEPP).Design/methodology/approach – The paper outlines the primary objectives of JEPP.Findings – JEPP was created to encourage and disseminate quality research about the vital relationships among institutions, entrepreneurship and economic outcomes. JEPP 's aim is to improve the quality of scholarly and public discourse about entrepreneurship and development policies. In general, JEPP seeks high‐quality articles that say something interesting about public policy, entrepreneurship and economic development.Originality/value – The editorial describes the thinking behind JEPP, and the journal's objectives. JEPP welcomes all scholars and individuals with professional or personal interests in acquiring and sharing knowledge about institutions, entrepreneurship, and economic outcomes.

State‐funded angel investor tax credits: Implementation and perceived effectiveness in a sample of states within the United States

Abstract: Purpose – Over the past decade more than 20 states have begun to offer tax credits to angel investors in an attempt to increase state economic growth. These credits are intended to increase new venture investment, create high‐paying and knowledge‐based jobs, and increase tax revenue collections, but there is some debate over costs and benefits associated with these credits. This paper aims to investigate this issue.Design/methodology/approach – This paper will examine the implementation and perceived effectiveness of tax credit programs in Hawaii, Louisiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Oregon, and Vermont. These states were chosen for this research sample based on their differing physical locations within the USA and the uniqueness of the characteristics of each state's chosen tax credit program.Findings – The paper reveals that state investment tax credit programs vary widely in areas of eligibility, level of funding available per investment and per year, and whether or not the credits are refundable. All of t...

James Buchanan on inheritance: a critique

Abstract: Purpose – What are the reasons for writing this paper? The purpose of this paper is to make the case for liberty, and free enterprise, against the criticisms of this system. Specifically, the present essay is an attempt to criticize the case for inheritance taxation. This is made by many, but the author focuses on James Buchanan's contribution to this support for socialism. The author does so because James Buchanan is widely known as a champion of capitalism and free markets, and he is nothing of the sort, at least in this one case.Design/methodology/approach – The approach used in this paper is to quote widely from the adherents of inheritance taxes, and then to show the flaws in the cases they offer in support of this system.Findings – The finding is that none of the arguments offered on behalf of inheritance taxation have been shown to be valid. There are flaws in all of them. This, of course, does not imply no such arguments can be shown to be successful; only that the ones herein cited do not justify...

Peeling the onion: public policy in entrepreneurship education

Abstract: Purpose – This paper aims to examine some basic pathways to bring issues of public policy into entrepreneurship classes.Design/methodology/approach – The paper looks at policy issues related to taxation, regulation and employment which all offer important topics that can be integrated into a variety of standard entrepreneurship courses.Findings – Integrating policy issues into entrepreneurship classes is important to assist students understand the importance of compliance, to see the linkages to their broader university education, and to help make them more informed citizens.Originality/value – This paper hopes to foster more integration of public policy into both the entrepreneurship classroom and into more traditional streams of entrepreneurship research.

Social enterprise as a means to reduce public sector deficits

Abstract: Purpose – Charitable organizations have long been held out as separate from other human endeavors. One of the ways that this distinction has been maintained is through the use of a tax exemption. However, difficult economic times have caused state and local governments to search for additional revenues to make up for budget deficits. At the same time, there has been significant growth in the use of a new model for funding social missions as a social enterprise. While charity gets its operating income from grants and donations, this model uses commercial business activities as the funding for a social benefit, the purpose of this paper is to explore this model.Design/methodology/approach – This paper will provide a detailed review of the various reasons behind the tax exemption that nonprofits currently enjoy. It will then review alternatives that are available to government entities to address the desire to obtain additional revenue. Finally, it will examine the notion that a social enterprise may be a wa...

The brewer, the baker, and the monopoly maker

Abstract: Purpose – This paper seeks to examine how productive entrepreneurial activities, such as innovation, influence unproductive entrepreneurial activities, such as regulatory rent seeking.Design/methodology/approach – To investigate the argument the authors consider Bavaria's brewing industry in the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries using an analytic narrative approach.Findings – The example of Bavaria's brewing industry suggests that productive entrepreneurial activities may increase unproductive entrepreneurial activities. Confronted with a situation in which innovation erodes their monopoly returns, legally protected producers and policymakers reregulate industry to recapture lost rents. Regulation policy under such reregulation tends to be more encompassing, and thus produces more unproductive entrepreneurial activity, than pre‐innovation regulation policy. This reflects the greater number or variety of producers that new regulation policy must encompass for reregulation to recreate rents.Originality...