Abstract
This paper discusses the nature of entrepreneurship and its relation to innovation
along a cycle in which exploration and exploration follow upon each other. We place
the roles of entrepreneurship in innovation policy within this cycle of innovation.
Different types of innovation along the cycle of innovation are realized with different
forms of entrepreneurship, which are constrained or enabled by different legal
institutions. One of the key roles of governments is to design, change or destruct
institutions in order to improve societal welfare. The question is what governments
should do in the context of innovation policy. Here, social scientists can make a
contribution by providing insight into what entrepreneurship and innovation is
(theories about these phenomena), and how institutions affect them in reality
(empirical evidence about their effects). This requires social scientists to be engaged
scholars and to provide new policy options as an honest broker between the
academic world and the policy world. The key question of this paper is: How can
policy best enable innovation based entrepreneurship? The answer is derived from
looking at both theoretical tenets and empirical evidence using an institutional
design perspective, which aims at providing arguments for the design, change
and/or destruction of institutions, given the goals of the governments. We provide
an overview of some (empirically tests of) institutions that enable or restrain
particular types of entrepreneurship. Examples of these institutions are intellectual
property rights and the Small Business Innovation Research program, employment
protection, and non-compete covenants.
along a cycle in which exploration and exploration follow upon each other. We place
the roles of entrepreneurship in innovation policy within this cycle of innovation.
Different types of innovation along the cycle of innovation are realized with different
forms of entrepreneurship, which are constrained or enabled by different legal
institutions. One of the key roles of governments is to design, change or destruct
institutions in order to improve societal welfare. The question is what governments
should do in the context of innovation policy. Here, social scientists can make a
contribution by providing insight into what entrepreneurship and innovation is
(theories about these phenomena), and how institutions affect them in reality
(empirical evidence about their effects). This requires social scientists to be engaged
scholars and to provide new policy options as an honest broker between the
academic world and the policy world. The key question of this paper is: How can
policy best enable innovation based entrepreneurship? The answer is derived from
looking at both theoretical tenets and empirical evidence using an institutional
design perspective, which aims at providing arguments for the design, change
and/or destruction of institutions, given the goals of the governments. We provide
an overview of some (empirically tests of) institutions that enable or restrain
particular types of entrepreneurship. Examples of these institutions are intellectual
property rights and the Small Business Innovation Research program, employment
protection, and non-compete covenants.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Place of Publication | Utrecht |
| Publisher | UU USE Tjalling C. Koopmans Research Institute |
| Number of pages | 21 |
| Publication status | Published - 2011 |
Publication series
| Name | Discussion Paper Series /Tjalling C. Koopmans Research Institute |
|---|---|
| No. | 03 |
| Volume | 11 |
| ISSN (Electronic) | 2666-8238 |
Keywords
- entrepreneurship
- innovation
- institutions
- innovation policy