Hotspurs in, sober bores out: A call and an agenda for entrepreneurship and innovation policies that foster rapidly scaling ventures

Abstract

Our effort is motivated by the observation that European entrepreneurs who receive financial support from public entrepreneurship and innovation programs, set out as hotspurs (fiery highly motivated professionals) with a focus on innovation and scaling. However, over time their scaling ambitions erode, and efficiency starts to dominate ventures' strategies pursued with the financial support received becoming much more cautious managers (Sober Bores). We argue that European innovation and entrepreneurship policy fails to promote firm scaling because of the fundamental misunderstanding that innovation drives firms scaling, overlooking the crucial role of an entrepreneurial business model that ensures a fit between firms' market offerings and customer preferences throughout the firm development. We identify the underlying pain points that hamper firm scaling, deduct action points for scaling-oriented European innovation and entrepreneurship policies and suggest change agendas for policy and practice. Finally, we propose a novel approach for future research assessing innovation and entrepreneurship support schemes that can enhance our understanding and better inform evidence-based policies.