Place-based Enterprise Research Articles

When Positive Community Spread Is the New Normal: A Multilevel Theory of Community Entrepreneurship

Our global economic system has contributed to growing prosperity for some communities, while disrupting the economic and social well-being of others. Both rural and urban communities face depletion as businesses relocate in search of higher profits elsewhere. We draw on a growing body of work from entrepreneurship and organizations research, along with insights from psychology, geography, and sustainable community development, to develop a multilevel model of community entrepreneurship that examines the processes by which community entrepreneurs and place-based enterprises, as key actors, reverse the downward spiral of depletion. We develop the concept of entrepreneurial energy – which we define as an ongoing dynamic vitality directed toward value creation and transformative change – as a central mechanism that enables these actors to work with community members to overcome significant barriers and transform depleted places. Our multilevel process model provides a pathway towards a new positive reality in which empowered, resilient communities are sites for addressing global challenges and fostering human and ecological well-being. In doing so, we draw researchers’ attention to the importance of studying community entrepreneurship as a collaborative, bottom-up process, involving individual, organizational and community actors, while deepening our understanding of how to develop resilient communities in an age of disruption.

Localism is an illusion (of power): the multi-scalar challenge of UK enterprise policy-making

ABSTRACT This paper explores to what extent the new localism has effectively empowered local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) and local communities to deliver localized, place-based enterprise policy at the subnational level. It identifies externally imposed constraints on local enterprise policy-making that have seen this reoriented towards the support of high-growth potential businesses. However, the scope and focus of enterprise policy at the LEP level contrast with heterogeneous local realities and needs, highlighting a pronounced rhetoric–reality gap. With little evidence of local knowledge transcending policy boundaries, the paper reveals that the current arrangements constrain local agency and reduce the effectiveness of enterprise policy-making at the local level. It concludes that the power to develop localized, place-based enterprise policy exists only in rhetoric.

Place-based network organizations and embedded entrepreneurial learning

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop an original six-phase model describing entrepreneurial learning in the transition of place-based enterprises toward a sustainable exploitation of natural common resources (commons).Design/methodology/approachThe six-phase model proposed by this study explains the learning processes involving place-based enterprises through two important existing theories: adaptive co-management and Lachmann’s evolutionary, embedded theory of entrepreneurship. The proposed model integrates these two theories on the basis of a longitudinal case study on the fishing enterprises in an Italian marine protected area (MPA).FindingsIn the case study, the success factors identified by the adaptive co-management literature proved important in enabling an embedded entrepreneurial learning process consistent with Lachmann’s view. The case analysis allowed the authors to cluster these learning processes around six phases. Further, even if traditional fishing is not knowledge-intensive, this case shows the transition to a sustainable business model required intense efforts of educated institutional work and scientific research. Interestingly, the key learning processes were enabled by the emergence of a larger, networked social entity (a network form of organization) including the community of fishermen, the MPA management and a network of scientists studying the marine area ecosystem.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is explorative and relies on a single case study. Despite this limitation, it opens up new research paths in the fields of entrepreneurship, institutional work, network organizations and adaptive management of the commons.Originality/valueThis study is strongly interdisciplinary; it proposes an original model based on a theoretical view that is highly innovative for organization and management studies; and addresses a relevant but overlooked issue with important societal implications.

Sustainability and Place-Based Enterprise

In this article, we critique the “placeless” character of enterprise sustainability research and introduce the concept of the place-based enterprise (PBE), arguing that such enterprises offer a potentially important means of fostering ecological and social sustainability in local communities. Drawing on a variety of disciplinary perspectives, we offer a specification of the concept of place and explore the relationships between places and enterprises. We maintain that PBEs, whose resources, productive activities, and ownership are anchored in specific local places, and who themselves possess a sense of place, may be more likely than conventional enterprises to pursue locally beneficial economic, social, and environmental outcomes. A typology of PBEs and suggestions for future research are proposed.

How to Think about Place and People Approaches to Poverty

Spatially concentrated poverty has been the subject of scholarly research and policy debates since at least the late 1980s. The frameworks for understanding these studies and debates have focused on causes related to individuals, or “people,” and neighborhoods, or “places.” This article reviews the literature on people-based and place-based policy, suggesting that the dichotomy obscures important spatial impacts of individual entitlements and the impact of place-based policies on individual residents. The study empirically examines the implementation of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) in Los Angeles and compares its spatial characteristics with the public investments associated with the place-based Enterprise Zone (EZ) program. Findings show that the EITC represents a significantly greater, though unintended, investment in poor neighborhoods than does the EZ and suggest new scholarly research and policy directions.