Business Environments|Entrepreneurial Places|Job Creation|Local Economic Development|Local Government|Vibrant Economies

Promoting local SME participation in public procurement

April 10, 2023
6 min read
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Promoting local small- and medium-enterprise (SME) participation in public procurement markets should be crucial in any government’s support for local economic development. I will never forget the experience of working in Glasgow many years ago in housing estates that contained extremely high levels of multigenerational unemployment. I remember meeting men and women who sat idling…

Economic Development|Entrepreneurial Places|Investment|Job Creation|Local Economic Development|Local Government|Private Sector Development

Local government and economic development; a theory of change

August 11, 2022
9 min read
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How do local governments create change in the local economy? By understanding the theory of change local governments can focus their local economic development interventions. This improves the likelihood of success that will be sustained over time. It is key to understanding local government and economic development better. A theory of change describes how and why…

Economic Development|Local Economic Development|Local Government|Private Sector Development

Creating a virtuous system for local economic growth

August 11, 2022
7 min read
local economic growth read more

Success in local economic development requires an understanding of the local economic system. By creating a virtuous local economic system, we intervene to change different parts of the economy. We work with various local actors to create a virtuous system for local economic growth. This article is a companion to another on a theory of change…

Economic Development|Entrepreneurial Places|Innovation|Local Government|Public Policy|Vibrant Economies

Supporting city and local government innovation

September 19, 2019
5 min read
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City and local government authorities can be more innovative in the way they work, share data and stimulate local innovation. Characteristics of innovative local governments While there is no single pathway to success, there are characteristics that high-performing city and local governments share: First, innovative city and local government authorities make sure that very different…

Business Environments|Job Creation|Regulatory Reform

Better business regulations create jobs

October 31, 2017
5 min read
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Business environment reform for job creation I this post, I explore how business environment reform nurtures job creation. The World Bank’s annual Doing Business assessment was released today with some important claims regarding the impact of regulatory reform on job creation. There has been much debate over the years about the significance of the link…

Business Environments|Entrepreneurship|Innovation|Job Creation|Public Policy

Global economy drives SME growth and job creation

October 18, 2017
9 min read
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This article examines how the global economy drives SME growth and job creation. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play an important role in economic development and job creation. While the general features of this role are understood, there are many features of this that require more research. Of particular interest to countries and regions around the…

Book Reviews|Entrepreneurship|Innovation|Public Policy

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

August 11, 2012
9 min read

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 F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard…

Entrepreneurial Places|Public Policy|Uncategorized

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

July 3, 2012
3 min read

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 and the Hague (NL),…

Entrepreneurial Places|Innovation

MindLab –– a platform for co-creating better ideas.

November 5, 2011
5 min read

Here’s a Danish initiative designed to promote innovation within government while breaking down government silos. MindLab is a cross-ministerial innovation unit which involves citizens and businesses in creating new solutions for society – “a neutral zone for inspiring creativity, innovation and collaboration”. MindLab works with civil servants of three Danish ministries: Ministry of Business and Growth Ministry…

Entrepreneurial Places|Entrepreneurship|Public Policy|Uncategorized

Private Sector and Enterprise Development Fostering Growth in MENA

October 27, 2011
2 min read

Private Sector and Enterprise Development; Fostering Growth in the Middle East and North Africa is a 2010 book published by Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and written by Lois Stevenson, a Visiting Research Fellow at the IDRC in Cairo, Egypt. The book is concerned with the context for private sector development (PSD) including micro, small and medium enterprises (SMEs1), the PSD…

Book Reviews|Enterprise Education|Entrepreneurial Places|Public Policy

Accelerating Entrepreneurship in the Arab World

October 26, 2011
4 min read

This month, the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the Forum of Young Global Leaders (YGL), in collaboration with Booz & Company,  launched the Accelerating Entrepreneurship in the Arab World report, which highlights ten recommendations to promote a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem across the region. Policy-makers, business leaders, academia and civil society leaders are all aiming to…

Book Reviews|Entrepreneurial Places

Doing Business 2012

October 21, 2011
3 min read

The World Bank Group’s Doing Business team have just released the annual report for this year: Doing Business 2012: Doing Business in a More Transparent World.  This is the ninth in a series of annual reports comparing business regulations in 183 economies. It measures regulations affecting 11 areas of everyday business activity. “During this time of…

Book Reviews|Public Policy

Boulevard of Broken Dreams

October 12, 2011
4 min read

Josh Lerner (2009) Boulevard of Broken Dreams: why public efforts to boost entrepreneurship and venture capital have failed–and what to do about it, Princeton University Press, Princeton Discussing the complex history of Silicon Valley and other pioneering centers of venture capital, Josh Lerner uncovers the extent of government influence in prompting growth. He examines the public…

Public Policy

Promoting competitive industries in a high-growth country

October 1, 2011
2 min read

This interesting post from the World Bank’s blog on private sector development cites Ricardo Hausmann, Professor of Economic Development at the John F. Kennedy School of Government and Director of Harvard’s Center of International Development and Dani Rodrik, Professor of International Political Economy at the Kennedy School and their observations on India and its high levels…

Entrepreneurial Places

Creating entrepreneurial business environments

September 16, 2011
2 min read

A key ingredient of entrepreneurship is risk. Doing things differently, inventing and producing different things, and providing different services… all this entails risk. Entrepreneurs invest in doing things differently and the outcomes of this investment are unpredictable. In fact, these investments are more likely to fail than not. Governments stifle entrepreneurship in Africa through policy…

Public Policy

The role of government

September 16, 2011
4 min read

In efforts to promote entrepreneurship and innovation most attention is given how to development entrepreneurs. While it is generally recognised that there is no entrepreneurial gene that is passed on from one generation to the next and that entrepreneurs are made and not born entrepreneurial, a high degree of attention is given in some quarters…