Self‐Reliant Citizens, Market Deregulation, and Labour Flexibility: The Case of Finnish Entrepreneurship Strategy (2000–2022)

List of Figures and Tables - Acknowledgements - List of Contributors - Labour Flexibility and Productivity: Overview E.J.Amadeo & S.Horton -Brazil: Labour Market Flexibility and Productivity. Many Poor Jobs J.M.Camargo - Labour Flexibility: The Case of Chile P.Romaguera, P.Gonzalez, A.Mizala & C.Montero - What Flexible is, Rigid can be: The Mexican Labour Market in the Eighties F.Zapata - Labour Flexibility and Productivity in Canada: Markets, Institutions and Skills M.Baker, M.Gunderson & S.Horton - Labour Market Flexibility in the European Union R.M.Lindley - Labour Productivity and Flexibility in Japan N.Saavedra-Rivano & H.Imaoka - Quantitative Flexibility in the US Market S.G.Allen & R.B.Freeman - Index

PurposeThe paper aims to describe the manner in which entrepreneurship policies are embedded in the national contexts and then through analysis offers a deeper understanding of the development of Finnish and Irish entrepreneurship policies. It seeks to focus on three questions: What is the context for entrepreneurship policies in the studied countries?; What kind of governance structure for entrepreneurship policy can be identified and derived from theoretical perspectives?; and What policy instruments and content are associated with governance rationale?Design/methodology/approachThe empirical data involve primary data on national entrepreneurship policy documents illustrating the governance structure for policy development and implementation, as well as policy objectives and targets. Additionally, concrete policy measures were studied within six sub‐areas of entrepreneurship. The analysis is based on a framework with two layers of policy: governance structure, and specific policy measures.FindingsThe results show that the countries studied are implementing strikingly similar approaches in entrepreneurship policy‐making: state‐institutional coordination marked by a strong role for the government, complemented by a more recent shift towards a competitive approach. Because political, national and economic context plays a significant role in understanding entrepreneurship policy approaches it is justified to add a third layer, context, to the framework.Practical implicationsParticular measures or good practices cannot be imported from other countries without understanding the theoretical rationale and policy context for the measures.Originality/valueThe study highlights the role of time and path‐dependency in policy‐making; therefore, future research and evaluations on entrepreneurship policies need to be strongly contextualised.

Over this chapter, we go over the interplay between globalization, labour flexibility and labour standards. We highlight the discourse of flexibility of labour put out by bodies such as the World Bank and contrast it with the labour standards espoused by UN and ILO, particularly in relation to contract labour. It is also noted that international political interactions encourage many international organizations to selectively advocate decent labour standards and state regulations, while on other platforms the same organizations or their counterparts propagate deregulation and labour market flexibility. We conclude by emphasizing that both these—labour flexibility and labour standards—need to be balanced together to govern labour relations.

The wave of crises that began in 2008 reheated the debate on market deregulation as a tool to improve economic performance. This paper addresses the consequences of increased flexibility in goods and labor markets for the conduct of monetary policy in a monetary union. We model a two-country monetary union with endogenous product creation, labor market frictions, and price and wage rigidities. Regulation affects producer entry costs, employment protection, and unemployment benefits. We first characterize optimal monetary policy when regulation is high in both countries and show that the Ramsey allocation requires significant departures from price stability both in the long run and over the business cycle. Welfare gains from the Ramsey-optimal policy are sizable. Second, we show that the adjustment to market reform requires expansionary policy to reduce transition costs. Third, deregulation reduces static and dynamic inefficiencies, making price stability more desirable. International synchronization of reforms can eliminate policy tradeoffs generated by asymmetric deregulation.

With increasing numbers of environmental conflicts in recent years, Chinese local governments are changing their modes of governance with the aim of addressing these conflicts satisfactorily. Through a case study, we identified shifts in modes of governance from hierarchical to network and from market to hybrid (characterized by a combination of market and hierarchical) in three arenas. Our findings confirm that initiating actors, stakeholder involvement types, rules of interaction, and implementation strategies are useful indicators of shifts in governance modes. Media, protests and policy entrepreneurs in different arenas are important factors in the shift from hierarchical to network governance, while policy entrepreneurs and higher‐level government intervention are crucial factors in the shift from market to a hybrid governance mode. Policy entrepreneurs play an important role in all three arenas. As for theoretical contribution, our research has provided the evidence for non‐hierarchical governance practices in the NIMBY in China. In the future, local governments in China may learn to consider proper governance mode shifts to deal with the NIMBY conflicts in infrastructure planning and construction.

In their efforts to affect policy change, policy entrepreneurs employ a series of strategies, which have been well documented in the literature. However, little is known regarding the relationship between the types of strategies policy entrepreneurs use and the institutional contexts in which they operate. The Interreg Europe programme aims to promote policy changes and thus offers a space for policy learning and experimentation to policy entrepreneurs. Using a mixed methodology that includes a survey addressed to the sixty-five Interreg Europe projects in research and innovation during the programming period 2014–20 and twelve follow-up semi-structured interviews, this article explores the strategies used by policy entrepreneurs in different institutional contexts. The study, rare in the policy entrepreneurship scholarship with its quantitative aspects, highlights the most widely-used strategies by policy entrepreneurs in research and innovation policy changes. Findings suggest that the strategy of storytelling is more widely used in high-innovator regions than in low-innovator regions and in Northern European regions compared to Southern European regions. Moreover, policy entrepreneurs who employ the storytelling strategy find it easier to introduce a policy change.

Increasing the availability of skilled labor to small and innovative ventures is imperative if entrepreneurship and innovation are to flourish within the European Union. Building up a qualitatively and quantitatively fitting labor force is always a challenge for new, growing ventures, but Europe’s labor market and social security systems tend to create specific barriers to such growth. By aiming for neutrality and portability in social security systems, we propose reforms that will increase the mobility and flexibility of labor, while maintaining a generous level of social security and labor protection. As competencies in labor markets and social security are concentrated at the member state level, the proposals made in this chapter mainly speak to policymakers at that level. Moreover, our proposals extend the scope of what is traditionally considered entrepreneurship policy.

Government interventions in market economies can impact heavily on both the welfare of entrepreneurs and the size of the entrepreneurial sector. Government intervention is often predicated on a belief that entrepreneurs generate valuable positive social and economic externalities, emanating from new ideas, new products, new employment and enhanced competitiveness. If entrepreneurs are unable to appropriate all of these benefits themselves (i.e. unable to ‘internalise’ the benefits), there might be too little investment in entrepreneurship for the social good, justifying government intervention. Governments often also see entrepreneurship as a route out of poverty and dependence on state benefits, and as a means of achieving self-reliance. At the same time, though, governments often evince concern about the living and working conditions of the poorest and most vulnerable workers. These workers are often found in entrepreneurship, either as struggling small business owners or own-account self-employees. At the outset it is helpful to explain what is meant by the term ‘public policy towards entrepreneurship’. Lundstrom and Stevenson (2005, 2007) distinguish between entrepreneurship policies , which focus on start-ups of new businesses, and SME policies , which focus on the stock of existing small businesses.

The macroeconomic effects of goods and labor markets deregulation

Many contemporary climate change and food security initiatives, including climate-smart agriculture (CSA), call for connecting and integrating different government levels, policy domains, and organizations. This boundary-crossing is frequently accompanied by difficulties including turf wars and power struggles, which risk to thwart policy development. Although the literature argues that policy entrepreneurship contributes to the crossing of level, domain, and organizational boundaries, knowledge on these dynamics is fragmented, and insights into entrepreneurial strategies, and how these are embedded in the policymaking context, are limited. Consequently, the aim of this dissertation is to understand how policy entrepreneurship contributes to the crossing of boundaries to achieve CSA. The aim is addressed through three research questions: How and why do policy entrepreneurs cross boundaries for climate-smart agriculture? How does the policymaking context influence cross-boundary policy entrepreneurship for climate-smart agriculture? How can cross-boundary policy entrepreneurship in the policy process for climate-smart agriculture be conceptualized? To understand policy entrepreneurship’s contribution to the crossing of boundaries, the dissertation focuses on two case studies of CSA policy development: the Global Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture, and the National Climate-Smart Agriculture Strategy in Kenya. These cases have been studied through a mixed-methods research design, including a systematic literature review, congruence analysis, and frame analysis. The dissertation proposes a conceptual framework that describes cross-boundary policy entrepreneurship as a complex set of strategies that interplay with the policymaking context. This strategizing process is characterized by entrepreneurship interpreting and acting upon the policymaking context in order to reconfigure the policy process, with both intended and unintended effects. This is an ongoing process, whereby the dynamic policymaking context requires entrepreneurs to continuously reassess their strategies. The key strategies to cross boundaries include patchwork framing, impartial leadership, and process manipulation. The policymaking context is characterized by differences in interests, ideas, and institutions. Although many strategies can influence the ideas, interests, and institutions in certain levels, domains, and organizations, my findings show that patchwork framing serves mostly to adapting interests, whereas impartial leadership and process manipulation are predominantly linked to altering ideas and institutions, respectively. Through their actions, entrepreneurs are continuously engaged in defining and redrawing boundaries. In order to accommodate different actors entrepreneurs kept the boundaries of CSA consciously vague. Despite various resulting challenges including to work with differing interests, facilitate idea exchange in light of distrust, and face eroding support for initiatives, the entrepreneurs in both the analysed cases managed to realize CSA policy development. This dissertation shows that whereas CSA accommodates the continued existence of differences in ideas and interests and enables the rebranding of existing practices, simultaneously it streamlines discussions and facilitates the creation of new initiatives. However, contrary to the often highlighted notion of CSA as radical transformation, it rather signifies a small but significant reconfiguration of existing policies.

This unique Handbook explores the role of government in the development of entrepreneurship in countries where twenty years ago private enterprise was illegal or barely tolerated. The expert contributors reveal that government policy is one of the key influences on the external environment in which businesses develop, particularly in countries where it has been necessary to redefine the role of the state in relation to business development. They outline how government policy can also act as an enabling and/or a constraining force with respect to entrepreneurship development, particularly in relation to institutional change and the development of a market-based economy. This Handbook includes up-to-date information and analysis as to how entrepreneurship policies have evolved in the wider Europe, focusing on the challenges that arise in designing and implementing entrepreneurship policy. The Handbook of Research on Entrepreneurship Policies in Central and Eastern Europe excellently covers different facets of entrepreneurship policies in Central and Eastern Europe and will prove invaluable for academics, students and researchers of entrepreneurship and small business as well as policy studies. Policy makers will also find plenty of key insights and relevant information in this important resource.

In retrospect, the government intervention in business ecosystem of Iran has a long history. Oddly enough the dimensions of such intervention are more conspicuous after the approval of the first Constitution in 1906. Nonetheless, it is essential to point out that the strict regulations imposed by the government were partially eased and, at later stages, new concepts in the business world were shaped. This trend greatly contributed to the emergence of entrepreneurship in Iran which goes back to 15 years ago when an Entrepreneurship Development Program at Universities was approved for the first time in this country. Furthermore, the research tries to answer questions about the meanings of entrepreneurship from viewpoints of Iranian policymakers, the actions taken concerning entrepreneurship by government, the key effective factors influencing the policymaking process and finally finding the most prerequisites for effective entrepreneurship policy in Iran. These questions were answered in the wake of studying the relevant National Development Plans (NDPs), and reliable documents which have been recorded by accredited centers also the information gathered through interviews and questionnaires.

Background and Aim: The objectives of the research titled "Characteristics and Mechanisms of China's Pilot Models in Policy Diffusion: A Case Study of the Returned Migrant Workers' Entrepreneurship Policy" were: (1) to study the general characteristics and laws of the pilot model of policy diffusion in Chinese society (2) to study the characteristics and diffusion paths of the returning migrant entrepreneurship policy in two intergovernmental dimensions. Materials and Methods: This research was quantitative. The population was the returning home and entrepreneurship workers from the central government and 24 provinces totaling 44,156. The sample was 341 by Taro Yamane and analyzed by the statistic ready program. The instrument was a questionnaire. Results: Major findings: (1) The general characteristics comparison: Central and Local: Central policies paid more attention to the promotion of pilot projects and the implementation of policy reforms. Local policies focused more on providing services and promoting community building comparison of local pilots. The policy tools of the three places were all supply-oriented, but with different emphases. (2) The characteristics and diffusion paths of the returning migrant entrepreneurship policy in two intergovernmental dimensions between the relationship between domestic governments at various levels and local governments at various levels could be divided into two types: horizontal relationship and vertical relationship. Thus, by comparing local texts with the final central text, we could observe how China's home-returning entrepreneurial policy had diffused. Conclusion: A comprehensive cluster structure diagram was devised to categorize central policies into three pivotal dimensions: supply, demand, and environment, with diverse policy programs within each. The research findings highlight that these dimensions work synergistically, fostering a "synergy-driven" structure to propel return-to-hometown entrepreneurship. This integrated approach empowers the development of hometown entrepreneurship through a collaborative framework, thus advancing regional economic growth.

Entrepreneurship improves national competitiveness by creating new businesses, jobs, and innovation. Consequently, entrepreneurship has emerged as a focus of public policy. Government supports entrepreneurship by providing and implementing entrepreneurship policies. The challenging question related to entrepreneurship policy implementation is whether the implemented entrepreneurship policies really affect the intended goals such as increasing the number of entrepreneurs. This descriptive study aims to address the following issues: the criteria used to define entrepreneurship policy; the current evaluation tools to evaluate entrepreneurship policy; and how to evaluate entrepreneurship policy throughout the policy stages. The study focuses on a micro financing program which aims to improve access to capital and other resources for small and micro enterprises. The evaluation is divided into three parts, which are needs evaluation, process evaluation, and outcome evaluation. This study is essential for the development of entrepreneurship and makes a significant contribution to the practice and the science.

The main message that emerges from this paper is that an Entrepreneurship Policy is more relevant to economic growth than the traditional SME Policy. The paper is focused on entrepreneurship, its culture and development and the education necessary to unleash its tremendous energy for growth and development.Entrepreneurship Policy caters to the generation of the energy that fosters entrepreneurship and the enterprising culture. The evidence examined in this paper indicates that SME Policy is usually a patchwork of measures that lack synergy and is hence not fully attuned to the growth and prosperity of Small Enterprises. Entrepreneurship Policy on the other hand addresses all the needs for enhancing innovation and productivity in a knowledge based economy. It focuses on developing the individual as the nucleus of the society; by tempering the mettle of the individual and nurturing the seed to its fruitation.Small Enterprise Policies can be seen a subset of entrepreneurship policies. The entrepreneurship is the visualisor as well as the resource; entrepreneurship is his dynamism, the enterprise is his medium and the entrepreneurial environment is what he needs to generate and thrive in. entrepreneurship policy relates to mobilizing human resources both men and women to realize their full economic potential. The policy should be 'tenacious enough' to give strength and clout to the entrepreneurs to rally together to gain an equal footing and level playing field for maximizing potential for growth.The paper considers what kind of policy to adopt? The purpose of this paper is to create the necessary awareness for a well-balanced policy with the right focus on all the relevant contemporary issue. The paper highlights the experience of some countries and their SME Policies. The paper also reviews the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor and its criteria for evaluating the entrepreneurship development environment and the guidelines for designing Entrepreneurship Policy. Such a policy has to be a comprehensive undertaking based upon the knowledge that has emerged in the period beginning from the mid 20th century. It must reflect the current of research and knowledge accumulation on entrepreneurship and small enterprises. Through the review of existing literature and policies, specific aspects that need attention have been studied. Special attention is paid to aspects that have become increasingly important in the current period of economic crisis that the world is facing.The paper concludes with the recommendation for a Ministry of 'Entrepreneurship and Small Enterprises' to give clout and credence to the entrepreneurship policy and its implementation through a system of support infrastructure such as Small Enterprise Hub.