Following a centuries-long decline in the rate of self-employment, a discontinuity in this downward trend is observed for many advanced economies starting in the 1970s and 1980s. In some countries the rate of self-employment appears to increase. At the same time, cross-sectional analysis shows a...

In this paper we investigate what aspects characterize these gazelles in the Dutch economy. As such, it fits in a larger project taken up by the OECD, in which such an exercise is done for many OECD countries. The structure of this paper is as follows. First, we present in section 2 how many...

As globalisation increases so does the attention paid to the internationalisation of Dutch SMEs. The appearance of new players on the European market and on the world market means on the one hand that Dutch SMEs are being confronted with greater foreign competition on their domestic market. On...

This paper investigates whether start-up motivations and the level of social security can explain entrepreneurial aspirations. We use country-level data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) for the year 2005. We distinguish between the necessity motive, independence motive and increase...

The present document analyzes the linkages between globalization, entrepreneurship and the role of regions. After dealing with the meaning of globalization, the regional dimension of the response to globalization is described where downsizing, knowledge spillovers and agglomeration are the...

This study focuses on the prediction of the engagement of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in environmental management practices, based on a random sample of 689 SMEs. The study finds that several endogenous factors, including tangibility of sector, firm size, innovative orientation,...

Innovative high-tech small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are thought to be drivers of economic renewal and growth. However, due to their limited size, SMEs face two fundamental innovation barriers: the risk that other organizations appropriate the returns to the newly created knowledge by...

The present paper reconstructs and analyses the assumptions – i.e. the policy theory – underlying the development of the SME and Entrepreneurship Policy Program in general and the Establishment Act and the Loan Guarantee (BBMKB) in particular between 1982-2003. The analysis links these...

A major shift in the organization of developed economies has been taking place: away from what has been characterized as the managed economy towards the entrepreneurial economy, or what Kirchhoff (1994) has called dynamic capitalism. In particular, the empirical evidence provides consistent...

This contribution aims to answer the question what we know about social entrepreneurship by summarizing the current state of knowledge. It first provides a broad description of what social entrepreneurship is. Next, a conceptual overview is given of different perspectives on social...