Entrepreneurship 4.0: Setting the Stage

Abstract

Government policy can play a large role in supporting or undermining entrepreneurship. We highlight how governments can cultivate a startup ecosystem that is digitally-driven and in service of human-centered goals. Innovative entrepreneurs are essential to mastering the global challenges humankind faces. Executive summary Motivated people willing to take risks to realize their visions – the driving force behind entrepreneurialism – are essential to the sustainability of economies and their capacity to adapt to new challenges. An environment that attracts innovators and brings them together with investors and experienced incumbents as role models and mentors would seem to be the place to go. Clearly, that place is Silicon Valley. Or is it? While a thriving startup culture requires a cohort of enterprising individuals and a technological infrastructure to accompany it, government support plays a decisive role in creating a successful entrepreneurial ecosystem. Several elements of Western, free-market capitalism fail to meet the needs of an innovation-friendly environment. Ecosystems that favor large corporations and fail to attract and actively cultivate innovation that benefits society are unlikely to produce sustainable technological solutions. As AI, big data and IoT become key elements of more and more industries, tech talent and innovation will become even more important. The (digital) entrepreneurship and cooperation between stakeholders required to master the global challenges we face demand decidedly inclusive institutions and systems. We put forward some policy recommendations, and look at Estonia, France and Germany as examples of governments that support successful startup ecosystems. Although Estonia is small and has had a very specific set of challenges to overcome, we maintain that there are many broadly applicable learnings to be drawn from it. And yet, we also see that this model does not necessarily cover the big picture. That’s why we also look at France as a policy model for innovation in the digital sphere as well as Germany – the current worldwide innovation leader according to​ ​Bloomberg’s 2020 Innovation Index.​