International Studies in Entrepreneurship
Karl Wennberg
Christian Sandström Editors
Questioning
the Entrepreneurial
State
Status-quo, Pitfalls, and the Need
for Credible Innovation Policy
2International Studies in Entrepreneurship
Volume 53
Series Editors Zoltan J. Acs, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA David B. Audretsch, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA This series highlights cutting-edge research in entrepreneurship, small business/ SMEs, economic development, and policy. Volumes in the series feature empirical studies, theoretical analyses, practical applications, and policy recommendations in regional and global contexts, and explore a wide variety of topics with regard to entrepreneurship, including demographics, new venture financing, research & development, business creation, labor dynamics, technology management, and education. Springer and Series Editors welcome proposals for research monographs, edited volumes and reference works in all areas of entrepreneurship research.
3More information about this series at https://link.springer.com/bookseries/6149
4Karl Wennberg • Christian Sandström
Editors
Questioning
the Entrepreneurial State
Status-quo, Pitfalls, and the Need
for Credible Innovation Policy Editors Karl Wennberg Christian Sandström Stockholm School of Economics Jönköping International Business School Stockholm, Sweden Jönköping, Sweden
5ISSN 1572-1922 ISSN 2197-5884 (electronic) International Studies in Entrepreneurship ISBN 978-3-030-94272-4 ISBN 978-3-030-94273-1 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94273-1
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6“Creative destruction, innovation, and entrepreneurship are at the core of economic growth. The government has a clear role, to provide the basic fabric of a dynamic society, but industrial policy and state-owned companies are the boulevard of broken dreams and unrealized visions. This important message is convincingly stated in Questioning the Entrepreneurial State.” —Anders Borg, former Minister of Finance, Sweden “While governments undoubtedly have an important role in ‘setting the table’ for entrepreneurship, their track record in direct interventions to this end has been much more problematic. The thoughtful essays in this volume highlight the many obstacles that aggressive government efforts to boost entrepreneurs can encounter, and provide a healthy corrective to naïve prescriptions by academics and policymakers alike.” —Josh Lerner, professor, Harvard Business School “Simple policy solutions won't solve complex societal challenges, as this book thoroughly demonstrates. The proper remit of policy is to respect current societal and economic structures while also supporting new directions. These can be unleashed through the creative potential of new knowledge, innovations, and entrepreneurs as agents of change in many spheres of society.”
—Maureen McKelvey, Professor of Industrial Management and Economics,
University of Gothenburg, Sweden “Misreading the dynamism of American entrepreneurship, European intellectuals and policymakers have embraced a dangerous fantasy: catching up requires constructing an entrepreneurial state. This book provides a vital antidote: The entrepreneur comes first: The state may support. It cannot lead.”
—Amar Bhidé, professor, Thomas Schmidheiny Professor of International
Business, Tufts University “This important new book subjects the emergence of the entrepreneurial state, which reflects a shift in the locus of entrepreneurship from the individual to the public sector, to the scrutiny of rigorous analysis. The resulting concerns, flaws, and biases inherent in the entrepreneurial state exposed are both alarming and sobering. The skill and scholarly craftsmanship brought to bear in this crucial analysis is evident throughout the book, along with the even but ultimately consequential thinking of the authors. A must-read for researchers and thought leaders in business and policy.”
7—David Audretsch, Distinguished Professor, Ameritech Chair of Economic
Development, Indiana University