Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
  • Publication
    Students' Entrepreneurial Intentions
    (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015) ;
    Young people represent the entrepreneurs of tomorrow, and their entrepreneurial plans and activities will shape tomorrow's societies and the overall economic and societal well-being. In addition, becoming an entrepreneur is a meaningful way to escape the unemployment trap. Hence, it is of great interest for numerous stakeholders such as academics, practitioners, educators, policymakers, and last but not least young people themselves to investigate how many of them intend to create their own firm in the future. As entrepreneurship is a truly global phenomenon, an investigation across many different countries is of particular value.
  • Publication
    Supporting the Transition from Unemployment to Self-employment - A Comparison of Governmental Support Programs across Europe
    (Edward Elgar, 2014)
    Haas, Melvin
    ;
    Governments around the world are facing increasing pressure to reduce unemployment. A deficit of 50 million jobs as compared to the situation before the 2008 financial crisis prevails (ILO 2012). This not only represents a significant amount of unused economic potential but also threatens to undermine the social stability of entire societies through a marginalization of large groups of people from the working population. One mechanism to help reduce unemployment is to support those who want to become self-employed. For this purpose, several active labor market programs (ALMPs) have been developed across Europe, providing support to those seeking to start a business after a period of unemployment. Despite constituting a relatively small portion of national active labor market expenses (1-6% of ALMP spending, OECD 2000) firms established by the previously unemployed make up a large proportion of all new firms as indicated by the 30% in Sweden (Statistics Sweden, 1998), and more than 25% in France (Désiage et al., 2010). The political and economic importance of these programs has led to an increased scholarly attention over the past years (Benus, 1994; Block and Sandner, 2006; Corral, Isusi and Stack, 2006; Bosma, Acs, Autio, Coduras and Levie, 2008; Caliendo and Kritikos, 2009; Block and Wagner, 2010) and it is likely that their political importance will further rise due to ongoing labor market instabilities (ILO, 2012). Despite the enhanced awareness of these programs that have been widely adopted in a number of countries across Europe, most prior research has restricted its scope to analyzing only one specific country, rather than engaging in an international comparative study. A few notable, however outdated, exceptions have employed an internal lens to compare alternative policy schemes and share experiences - both positive and negative - across borders (Staber and Bögenhold, 1993; Meager, 1996; OECD 2000). While some countries have gained considerable knowledge about how to structure their policy initiatives based on experiences from past revisions, other countries have only recently introduced such policy schemes. An international comparative analysis that is able to offer an encompassing yet also detailed overview of existing self-employment support programs could therefore serve as a basis for policymakers trying to improve existing- and implementing new support programs. The purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview and analysis of such policy schemes from several European countries. The selection of countries seeks to reflect the diversity with regards to economic importance, political orientation, history and culture, as well as the variety of program structures that have been implemented. It includes the large economies of France, Germany and Great Britain; their smaller, centrally located neighbors of Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland; the northern, Scandinavian country of Sweden; the eastern European countries of Poland and the Czech Republic; and the southern European countries of Greece and Spain. Similarities and differences between the programs are investigated in order to contribute to increasing their effectiveness (e.g., pointing out suitable policy instruments) and their efficiency (e.g., by employing limited public funds with maximum positive impact). The program structure, the eligibility requirements, the different forms of financial support, as well as the availability of non-financial business support services are presented. Subsequently, a number of differing policy approaches are identified and analyzed in greater detail. The chapter concludes with a discussion of our findings, including suggestions for policymakers and employment agencies that are responsible for the implementation and operation of such programs.
  • Publication
    Fostering Sustainable Innovation Within Organizations
    (Springer, 2014) ;
    Fischler-Strasak, Ursula
    ;
    Weidinger, Christina
    ;
    Fischler, Franz
    ;
    Schmidpeter, René
    Over the past years many corporate business leaders have started to shift their strategy from a pure profit seeking one towards a balance in simultaneously striving to achieve economic, environmental and social goals (Elkington 1998; Preuss 2007; Roth 2009). As a result, challenges on the sustainability agenda have emerged as a new source of opportunities for innovation and competitive advantage (Fichter 2006; Hockerts 2008; Hansen et al. 2009). Research has shown that entrepreneurs are the main drivers of innovation, economic growth and social change (Audretsch 2002); hence, organizations try to adopt entrepreneurial approaches in order to spur their own innovativeness (Hamel 1999; Ireland et al. 2009). However, as recent publications have discussed, the promotion of entrepreneurship is a difficult and multifaceted issue requiring the consideration of dynamic processes describing the interplay of multiple external factors, local conditions and the individual innovators (Isenberg 2010; Krueger 2012; Vogel 2013). These difficulties are particularly distinct when discussing sustainable innovation, as risk-related reluctance in instigating this kind of innovation can still be observed among corporate leaders (Hall 2002). If established companies plan to take part in creating tomorrow's economy, it will be necessary for them to challenge prevailing assumptions about innovation processes (Hamel 1999). The purpose of this chapter is to investigate the main success factors of entrepreneurial ecosystems and discuss ways how to assimilate these in an organizational context.
    Scopus© Citations 12