Government, SMEs and Entrepreneurship Development: Policies, Tools and Challenges
To be published by Gower Publishing (UK)
Edited by
Professor Robert Blackburn
Small Business Research Centre, Kingston University, Surrey UK
Email: r.blackburn@kingston.ac.uk
Dr Michael Schaper
Adjunct Professor, Curtin Business School
Curtin University of Technology, Western Australia
Email: Michael.Schaper@gmail.com
The aim is to produce a book that will help policy-makers, economic development officers, administrators, elected officials and researchers to better understand the issues involved in SMEs and entrepreneurship development. This involves understanding how government facilitates SME formation, growth and development, and how interventions may be improved to be more effective.
This book will be an edited series of chapters that examines strategies for small business development and entrepreneurship, the tools used to promote the small business sector, and methods of evaluating the effectiveness of interventions. The intention is to produce a compendium that will also provide readers with a history of small business (SME) policy development; allow them to understand and compare the different strategies employed by various governments and public sector agencies in recent decades; and equip them with the knowledge to critically evaluate performance of such development programs. It will be international in focus, drawing on materials from a wide range of countries, spanning both developed and emerging economies.
Rationale
In recent decades there has been substantial growth in the range of assistance programmes for SMEs and entrepreneurs across the world. Once regarded as peripheral to the economy and public policy, the significance of small firms and entrepreneurship has now been promoted to one of key importance in the economic and community development strategies of many nations. This has involved the development of specific dedicated government agencies and/or statutory authorities with a brief to promote SMEs and entrepreneurship; the establishment of business advisory services; the creation of statutory advocates and ombudsmen for the sector; targeted finance initiatives, soft loans, export finance and dedicated venture capital schemes; training and education schemes designed to foster enterprise, or to give prospective and new firm owner-managers sufficient business skills; particular programmes to support targeted groups in the population; and the development of an infrastructure conducive for SME and entrepreneurship promotion, such as broadband access and business incubators.
The contributions in Government, SMEs and Enterpreneurship Development will help policy-makers, economic development officers, administrators, elected officials, researchers and organisations doing business in the SME sector to better understand the issues involved in SMEs and entrepreneurship development.
Drawing on authoritative experience from a range of countries, spanning developed and emerging economies and examining a wide range of interventions, the book deals with strategies for small business development and entrepreneurship, the tools used to promote the small businesses, and methods of evaluating the effectiveness of interventions.
Chapters by researchers, analysts in businesses, enterprise development agencies and governments, as well as academics, are empirical or evidence-based and deal with both quantitative and qualitative approaches. They focus on the strategies that different governments, agencies and communities have adopted to foster business development; the policy tools and instruments that can be used to promote SMEs andentrepreneurship; and on the outcomes of policy instruments and their methods of evaluation.
The aim of this book is to provide a comprehensive understanding of the rationale, instruments and effects of public policy interventions designed to promote SMEs. The anthology will seek to explore as many different dimensions of this topic as possible, broadly following three main themes: