Entrepreneurship and the Strategic Management of Place
The Rafael del Pino Foundation organised, on Wednesday 18 November, the Master Conference "Entrepreneurship and the Strategic Management of Place" given by David B. Audretsch.
David Audretsch is Distinguished Professor and Ameritech Chair of Economic Development at Indiana University, where he is also Director of the Institute for Development Strategies. He is Honorary Professor of Industrial Economics and Entrepreneurship at the WHU-Otto Beisheim School of Management in Germany and Research Fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research in London.
Professor Audretsch's research has focused on the links between entrepreneurship, government policy, innovation, economic development and global competitiveness. His books include: Everything in its Place: The Strategic Management of Cities, Regions and States, Oxford University Press (2015) and The Handbook of Local Competitiveness, also with Oxford University Press (2015). He is co-founder and co-editor of Small Business Economics: An Entrepreneurship Journal. He was awarded the 2001 Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research by the Swedish Foundation for Small Business Research. In 2008 he received an honorary doctorate degree from Augsburg University and in September 2010 he received an honorary doctorate degree from Jonköping University. In 2011 he won the Schumpeter Prize of the University of Wuppertal.
Summary:
The economic performance of territories is as important as that of companies. This is why Audretsch insists that cities, regions and states need to take responsibility for their own economic performance by strategically managing everything that happens in their territory. The economic performance of territories is as important as that of companies. Therefore, cities, regions and states need to take responsibility for their own economic performance by strategically managing everything that happens in their territory. This is the main conclusion of the conference that David B. Audretsch, Director of the Institute for Development Strategies at Indiana University. According to Audretsch, there is a direct relationship between entrepreneurship and economic growth, in such a way that the economic performance of territories that promote entrepreneurship is much better in terms of employment, productivity, etc. In this sense, local strategies to improve the economic performance of territories based on attracting and retaining industrial investment no longer work in the world of globalisation and new technologies, so new ones need to be designed. The first thing to do in designing such a new strategy is to focus on the main types of resources available to a territory that enable it to have a strong economic performance. First would be physical assets, consisting of factors such as natural resources, factories, machinery and infrastructure. Secondly, there are the resources that are generated, at least to some extent, from research and development (R&D). In this sense, Audretsch recalled the need to convert R&D into employment, into benefits for society, something that only entrepreneurs can do because they are the ones who have the capacity to transform everything that R&D generates into something marketable. Finally, there are human resources, which include both skilled workers and those with low or no professional qualifications, human capital and what Richard Florida calls the 'creative class', i.e. the group of workers who create new ideas, new technologies or new content. For Audretsch, no single factor or resource is sufficient to achieve a strong level of economic performance. On the contrary, one of the main challenges of strategic territorial management is how to focus on those types of resources and factors that will generate the strongest and most sustained economic performance. While resources are important, how they are organised into firms and industries is crucial to a territory's economic performance, Audretsch said. There are several dimensions of the spatial structure and organisation of the territory that need to be taken into account, he said. The first is whether or not firms are organised in clusters of complementary activities. Also to be taken into account is whether activity is organised through firms that have market power, the degree to which firms operate in competitive markets, the level of specialisation of economic activity, the degree of economic diversity located in a particular place, and the role played by start-ups and new firms. Taking all this into account, each territory must shape its own strategy. This strategy must also take into account the human dimension, which includes elements such as people's propensity to interact, relate and bond with other people, people's emotional attachments to territories, place-related stereotypes and social capital. It is therefore important to develop these aspects as well. As regards the role of public policy in shaping strategies, Audretsch points out that this is not only the responsibility of governments, but also involves a wider range of individuals, parties and organisations in the public and private sectors.
The Rafael del Pino Foundation is not responsible for the comments, opinions or statements made by the people who participate in its activities and which are expressed as a result of their inalienable right to freedom of expression and under their sole responsibility. The contents included in the summary of this conference are the result of the debates held at the meeting held for this purpose at the Foundation and are the responsibility of their authors.
The Rafael del Pino Foundation is not responsible for any comments, opinions or statements made by third parties. In this respect, the FRP is not obliged to monitor the views expressed by such third parties who participate in its activities and which are expressed as a result of their inalienable right to freedom of expression and under their own responsibility. The contents included in the summary of this conference are the result of the discussions that took place during the conference organised for this purpose at the Foundation and are the sole responsibility of its authors.
