Place Based Economic Development with Simon White

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Growth-oriented entrepreneurs: Can we really find them before they grow?

In recent years, development agencies have given greater attention to the importance of identifying the so-called “growth-oriented entrepreneur”, some times known as the “gazelles” of the business community. As the name suggests, these are firms that are most likely to grow quickly and, in doing so, create more jobs and

Doing business in the "worst" state of Nigeria

Last month I had the opportunity to visit Ogun State in Nigeria and to look at how the Ogun State Government approaches the business sector. It’s a pretty bleak picture, but there are signs of change and there are many state commissioners and senior civil servants who are promoting

Startup communities

Simon White | Brief article on what makes a start-up community.

Two centres for social innovation

Creating physical and virtual centres for the promotion of social innovation appears to be an emerging trend. Here are two examples. In Toronto, Canada, the Centre for Social Innovation (CSI) is a Toronto-based social enterprise with a mission to catalyze social innovation. CSI’s shared workspace model offers office amenities

The enabling city: places of social innovation

“Social innovation thrives on the ideas and efforts of social entrepreneurs and creative individuals whose socially conscious work contributes to environmentalism in a variety of ways”, writes Chiara Camponeschi in her 2010 e-book, The Enabling City; Place-Based Creative Problem-Solving and the Power of the Everyday. Here, the sources of innovation

Recipes for growth, democracy (entrepreneurship and innovation) in an increasingly integrated world economy

BOOKS REVIEWED Dani Rodrik (2007) One economics, many recipes; globalization, institutions and economic growth, Princeton University Press, Princeton Dani Rodrik (2011) The globalization paradox; why markets, states and democracies can’t coexist, Oxford University Press, Oxford Dani Rodrik is the Rafiq Hariri Professor of International Political Economy at the John

The Kafka Brigade and the "strangling and depersonalising effect of bureaucracy"

Franz Kafka wrote about the strangling and depersonalising effect of bureaucracy. The Kafka Brigade reminds us that people using services have a lot to say about improving them – if only we would listen. Kafka Brigade is an independent, non-profit action research team, comprising a network of action researchers from Amsterdam