In this conceptual and practical article, the authors suggest an alternative to the current paradigm for developing enterprises in local communities and regions through-out the United States. They also propose implementing a new approach, called the entrepreneurial development system, for transforming community economies. They first lay out the specifications for the new paradigm, drawing distinctions between current practice and their proposal. They then describe the major components of their proposed enterprise development system; detail its benefits to entrepreneurs, service providers, and the community; and discuss challenges to its full-scale implementation. Throughout, implications for further research suggested by the new paradigm are noted.
This article argues that skill building lies at the heart of entrepreneurs' success, and it seeks to begin the process of understanding how skills can best be developed. The authors begin with a discussion of skill building and why it must be the focus of productive enterprise development efforts. They then examine a unique enterprise development program in central Appalachia that uses a system of blended personal and peer group coaching to develop the skills of its client entrepreneurs. By triangulating the results of in-depth interviews with entrepreneurs, coaches, and the managers of the program, the research reported here creates a set of comparative case studies that sheds light on how coaching can affect the way entrepreneurs learn. The findings have implications for how entrepreneurs can be more effectively assisted.
In this article, the authors examine the existing literature addressing the relationship between entrepreneurship and the community and conclude that this is an important, yet relatively neglected, topic. The article begins by defining the terms “community,” “entrepreneurship,” and the nexus of the two: “community development.” It then proceeds to explore what the current literature tells us about the interaction between these elements, touching upon issues of individualism vs. community, social capital building, productive and unproductive interaction, community culture, leadership, community entrepreneurship, and family venturing, among others. The article concludes with a set of observations about the types of research needed to fill gaps in our understanding of this delicate and vital relationship.
The purpose of this article is to offer a methodical approach to deciding when, where, and how to invest in entrepreneurship as a crosscutting economic development strategy. To accomplish this, the authors present and operationalize the concept of a pipeline of entrepreneurs and enterprises in order to effectively segment the marketplace of businesses and differentiate among potential economic development clients within the community. They then describe three options for managing and intervening in a community's pipeline of entrepreneurs and enterprises-performance-enhancement strategies, incubation strategies, and selective attraction strategies-and discuss how the pipeline can help policy makers and practitioners make informed decisions about where to invest (in what segment) and which strategies to use.One of the major problems confronting both policy makers and practitioners in economic development today is that there is currently no effective means of segmenting our market or client baseno way to effectively differentiate among entrepreneurs and enterprises-so that we can improve our performance in working with entrepreneurs and building entrepreneurial communities. This results in unresolved and dysfunctional conflicts about who is or is not an entrepreneur and, as a result, who can and should be helped in order to support the economic goals of our communities.The purpose of this article is to offer a new way of thinking about the business "assets" within a community or region. In this article, we operationalize the concept of a pipeline of entrepreneurs and enterprises and show how this gives us a framework for helping both policy makers and practitioners to make informed decisions about how and where to invest in entrepreneurship. We then describe three types of economic development strategies for managing a community's pipeline and discuss how these strategies can be used.
ELEMENTS OF THE FRAMEWORKOur framework contains two major variables: (a) skill level of the entrepreneur and (b) stages in the development of the business (i.e., life cycle).
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