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Strengthening Entrepreneurial Ecosystems an Interactive Guide for Development Professionals Contents CONNECT & CREATE Strengthening Entrepreneurial Ecosystems An interactive Guide for development professionals Contents Chapter 1 Introduction 4 Chapter 2 Aligning culture & motivations with a common purpose ( Level 1 ) 26 Chapter 3 Strengthening interactive players and helping them to grow ( Level 2 ) 42 Chapter 4 Improving the business environment for entrepreneurs ( Level 3 ) 85 Chapter 5 Designing and managing an ecosystem-strengthening programme 97 Chapter 6 A summary of lessons to be learnt from this Guide 110 Chapter 7 Listings List of abbreviations / figures / tables / Acknowledgements 119 page 2 How to use the Guide This interactive Guide gives development professionals the necessary theoretical background, concepts, approaches and practical tools to strengthen entrepreneurial ecosystems in developing countries. It is intended to be used as a reference after the professionals have completed their analytical ‘mapping’ of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The Guide is supported by examples from GIZ and other programmes, all of which are intended to provide an in-depth understanding of how professionals approach various challenges in different regions and contexts – and since numerous sources of information on how to strengthen entrepreneurial ecosystems exist, each section of the document provides links to many of these useful sources and to opportunities for personal involvement. Suggestions for improvements and additional ideas can be submitted to [email protected]. Note: Words that are highlighted in green (like the email address above) contain links on which you can click. page 3 1 INTRODUCTION Introduction 1 This chapter provides a background into why and how we have developed this Guide and why we believe that entrepreneurial ecosystems are important. It goes on to give an overview of different tools for analysing and mapping entrepreneurial ecosystems, which form the basis of every entrepreneurial-ecosystem strengthening programme. Chapter overview: I Background II Why entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial ecosystems are important III Analysis and mapping of ecosystems page 5 1 I Background Entrepreneurship promotion has been an essential field in German Development Cooperation for many years now. GIZ projects supporting entrepreneurship are highly diverse in terms of their geographical locations, target groups, contexts and the approaches used. Some projects support entrepreneurship in rural areas, conflict-affected environments, or refugee camps, while others support tech-startups that encourage the adoption of new technologies within markets. In terms of the approaches and tools used, projects can range from supplying training and start-up grants directly to entrepreneurs and supporting existing or establishing new incubators/accelerators, to matching entrepreneurs with investors and business angels – and these are only a few of the many means of support that are available. Recently, there has been a general move towards ‘entrepreneurial ecosystems’ as a conceptual framework for entrepreneurship promotion programmes, and in line with this concept, GIZ has developed a ‘Guide for mapping entrepreneurial ecosystems’. However, many questions remain open. For example: A survey of how GIZ project staff perceived the ecosystem › What is the difference between an ecosystem approach and approach was conducted as part of the development of this more traditional entrepreneurship promotion? Guide – and it revealed that there was a great deal of interest › What does working with ‘ecosystems’ entail – and how in these questions. Drawing on a broad knowledge base and can they be strengthened? employing a collaborative learning process would find the › Which role do development partners play in strengthening right answers. an ecosystem, and how can the results be measured? page 6 FIGURE 1: The development of this Guide 1 › Desktop review with 50 studies and reports RESEARCH ˜ › Interviews with 12 GIZ projects (see Acknowledgements) (April – June 2020) › Interviews with 13 non-GIZ projects (see Acknowledgements) › Lessons learned-Synthesis document and feedback by projects DEVELOPMENT › Pilot training with GIZ staff and feedback (June – October 2020) › Development of Guide › Diffusion of Guide IMPLEMENTATION AND ADAPTION › Further trainings (October 2020 – Spring 2021) › Feedback on further experiences, adapt and integrate (Source: Authors) page 7 II Why entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial ecosystems 1 are important? The economic and social impacts of entrepreneurs Joseph Schumpeter was a pioneer in the development of early theories on innovation and entrepreneurship. In his 1942 seminal work Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, he coined the term ‘creative destruction’. Creative destruction is the process that creates long-term economic growth through the entry of entrepreneurs, better ideas and innovations into the market. These ‘destroy’ the market power of the incumbent firms, thus improving the overall competitiveness and dynamism of the economy. These forces are also present in entrepreneurial ecosystems, in which ‘new’ ideas, methodologies, technologies, markets and innovators flourish, while older, less productive industries are challenged. THEORETICAL BASIS OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP Joseph A. Schumpeter, Evidence on the importance of entrepreneurship across the Capitalism, Socialism, Democracy, New York 1942 world has become stronger with the increased availability of data from more and more developing countries over the last “The fundamental impule that decade. However, this evidence is not wholly conclusive. Most sets and keeps the capitalist engine of the data shows that fast-growing and young firms create in motion comes from the NEW a higher proportion of economic growth in the economy – consumers goods, the NEW methods and this is an indication that categorising a firm by age and of production or transportation, the NEW markets. the NEW forms potential growth rate is just as essential as ranking it by size. of industrial organization that The data shows that these high-growth entrepreneurs occur capitalist enterprise creates.” across all sectors. (Source: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Schumpeter) page 8 This research also applies to developing countries. For example, › High-growth firms are young but not necessarily small 1 Eslava, Haltiwanger and Pinzon have shown that in both › One example here is Indonesia, where nearly half of the U.S. and Colombia, it is young businesses which create the the high-growth firms employed more than 50 workers highest employment growth rates, regardless of size.1 These › High-growth firms are found in all types of sectors young companies exhibit significantly higher net employment and locations growth rates and are the anchor underlying all job growth over a › High growth in companies is short-lived and sporadic. 15 to 20-year period. The World Bank studied eleven developing It is difficult for them to sustain high growth over long countries’ economies and arrived at the following conclusions2: periods of time FIGURE 2: Job creation by entrepreneurs 11 Employees in Est. employee 60 Year 10 growth rate 50 High-Growth ≥34 ≥20 % per year Entrepreneur* 40 30 Moderate- 10–33 5 % –19.99 % 20 Growth Entrepreneur 10 T T Low-Growth ≤9 ≤5 % per year 0 Entrepreneur 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 * Entrepreneurs leading firms with growth rates greater than those shown above were also classified as “High-Growth Entrepreneurs”. However, for illustrative purposes, such outliers were excluded in this figure. (Source: http://sme.ebi.gov.eg/Documents/Internationalization/2011%20High-Impact%20Entrepreneurship%20Global%20Report.pdf) 1 https://www.poverty-action.org/sites/default/files/publications/Eslavaetal.pdf 2 https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2018/11/16/high-growth-firms-facts-fiction-and-policy-options-for-emerging-economies page 9 One large study by Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) Ultimately, there are several reasons for governments and donors 1 and Endeavor3 involved more than five years of GEM data to support entrepreneurs and these include the following: collected from more than 60 countries and 70,000 entre- › Fostering a more productive, dynamic economy preneurs. The results of this study showed that 40 % of new › Creating jobs through growth companies and boosting jobs were created by just 4 % of the companies that were the skills of the workforce tracked. The same study also showed that these high-growth › Diversifying the economy by creating and nurturing new companies paid higher wages and that their employees had industries and introducing new demographics into the more job satisfaction (see figure 2 on the previous page). formal economy › Fostering socially and environmentally desired innovations Entrepreneurship is an important factor in economic and business models and contributing to social cohesion development – however, research has shown that it can also provide significant societal benefits. Stanford University has carried out case studies that examine how social entrepreneurs MORE RESOURCES: can fill in the gaps in public services created by a lack of Original MIT research on high-growth companies 4 government actions and / or bodies. This Guide profiles a https://ldnet.eu/ldnet-david-birch-the-job-generation-process/ GIZ project in Sudan to highlight how entrepreneurship More on Schumpeter’s work can contribute to peacebuilding and the bridging of https://eet.pixel-online.org/files/etranslation/original prevailing lines of conflict in a
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