Entrepreneurship support programs are designed to help generate innovation and stimulate U.S. economic growth by providing resources to potential and active entrepreneurs: education, training, and even funding. However, there currently is a dearth of information about the nature and effectiveness of these programs.
On April 1, 2008, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) convened a meeting at the Kauffman Foundation to discuss how to improve knowledge about these programs? effectiveness and impacts. The meeting brought together forty experts, including heads of entrepreneurship programs and economic development professionals, to share their experiences and ideas for supporting potential high-growth firms. This document summarizes the insights and conclusions from this meeting.
The participants concentrated on four questions:
- What are the core components of an effective entrepreneurship support program?
- What is the essential infrastructure of an entrepreneurial eco-system?
- What are new avenues for research?
- What steps should be taken next to facilitate high-growth entrepreneurs?
Participants determined that effective entrepreneurship programs should structure their services to address entrepreneurs' core needs: providing relevant market knowledge, access to talent and capital, and participating in networks. Effective support programs build bridges between entrepreneurs and their peers, community organizations (such as schools and universities), arts and cultural entities, hospitals, businesses, and local governments. These bridge-building efforts ideally should be part of a broader regional vision, which public policies can promote.
Research on the value of these entrepreneurial support programs would be useful, especially to determine their impacts on local and regional economic development. The participants agreed it also would be beneficial to identify ways in which far-flung support programs might better connect with one another.
Participants further agreed that policymakers and other stakeholders need greater awareness about the importance of entrepreneurship to economic growth, and — to the extent that the research demonstrates it — the importance of entrepreneurial support efforts to facilitate entrepreneurial growth.