Theme
Entrepreneurial Ecosystems

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"Fifty economies participated in the GEM 2019 Adult Population Survey (APS), Over 150,000 individuals participated in extended interviews as part of the GEM research in 2019. This is the solid evidence base for the GEM findings that are presented in this report and summarized here. Despite this extensive GEM evidence base, there are at least as many questions as answers as a result of this year’s analysis. As usual, GEM has a plethora of insights and some of the newest and key findings are listed below. The report also contains a detailed entrepreneurial profile of each participating economy, accompanied by a policy roadmap and full data tables showing the value of each GEM entrepreneurial variable in each economy."

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"In developing this paper, we conducted almost sixty interviews with thought leaders and active practitioners from a variety of organizations: investors, capacity development providers, corporations, researchers, network leaders, development finance institutions. In addition, we canvassed the growing body of literature in the field and leveraged our own experience in the sector.

Throughout the paper, and in a dedicated section at the end, we identify a number of prime areas that represent opportunities for the sector. While these are important opportunities, our list is not exhaustive. Indeed, this sector is still quite young – opportunity abounds for those interested in supporting SGBs in the challenging context of developing world markets."

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"This guide leads the reader through the process of observing, analysing and visualising the entrepreneurial ecosystem - meaning the entrepreneurs' environment including the surrounding institutions, actors and prevailing culture - a process referred to as 'mapping'. Such mapping enables the exploration of gaps and constraints and facilitates decisions on measures that are most relevant to improve the entrepreneurial environment in a given context.

This guide explicitly addresses those implementing development programmes that are operating in, or intend to conduct activities in, the field of entrepreneurship and the promotion of growth-oriented MSMEs."

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"This report brings new findings for consideration by the diverse audience of researchers, policymakers, educators, and practitioners. The ultimate aim is to highlight areas where there are still gaps, challenges, and opportunities, where women entrepreneurs have made significant progress, and how ecosystems influence and are influenced by women entrepreneurs. The findings of this report provide a foundation for guiding future research, policy decision-making, and design of initiatives and programs to enhance growth and development of women's entrepreneurship within context. Overall, this report demonstrates the value women entrepreneurs bring to societies worldwide and suggests areas for improvement in conditions that encourage and support their aspirations."

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"In this paper, we carry out a literature review of the studies investigating the factors that affect the performance and growth of clean technology start-up firms. The importance of clean-tech start-ups lies in their mission to protect the environment by facilitating the increased use of clean energy and environmentally friendly solutions. At the same time, the entrepreneurial nature of many of these firms enables introduction of radical innovations necessary for making breakthroughs in the industries of renewable energy and environmental technology that in turn are essential for the industry development. Given their significance, there are surprisingly few studies with the focus on the factors affecting the growth of clean-tech start-ups. Our search in leading management, entrepreneurship and energy journals has yielded a total of 13 articles, almost all of which focus on such external factors as policies. We argue that this gives us an incomplete picture of the factors enabling a clean-tech firm's development. As clean-tech firms are a subset of the population of new technology-based firms (NTBFs), we draw on the literature dealing with the factors that promote growth of NTBFs in order to build our framework for structuring the results. The analysis uncovers what future research areas can be pursued in order to gain a more balanced understanding of what enables the development of a clean-tech start-up. We suggest that in addition to the macro-studies of policies and regulations, future research needs to examine the individual and firm-specific factors, e.g. characteristics of the clean-tech entrepreneurs, teams, governance mechanisms and network structures. Furthermore, the existing focus on the environmental and innovative performance of clean-tech start-ups should be complemented by examining the alternative firm outcomes related to e.g. financial performance, social identity, alliance portfolio and internationalization."

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"This toolkit provides methodological guidance on assessing the current state of entrepreneurial ecosystems and offers a set of resources and tools that can be used by development practitioners. This toolkit does not aim to be exhaustive, but is intended to serve as a basis for other organizations to build upon. To develop this toolkit, ANDE conducted a comprehensive review of publicly available literature on entrepreneurial ecosystems and identified nine evaluative frameworks. We assessed these frameworks and synthesized key elements and indicators. ANDE encourages practitioners to use this toolkit as a resource guide that can be adapted and modified to fit the local and/sectoral context."

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"ANDE SA, in partnership with Innovate Durban, recently completed and published an in-depth snapshot of 124 programmes providing financial and non-financial support to the small and growing business ecosystem in Durban, South Africa and compiled their findings in this report. The insights in this snapshot are derived from primary data collection from entrepreneur support providers in Durban, as well as stakeholder feedback and external research cited throughout the snapshot."

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"As part of a series of ecosystem maps, with the support of the Citi Foundation, our West Africa Regional Chapter released a snapshot providing insight into the Abuja entrepreneurial ecosystems. This snapshot was produced through a review of existing literature, a series of surveys and interviews, as well as stakeholder meetings."

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"As part of a series of ecosystem maps, with the support of the Citi Foundation, our West Africa Regional Chapter recently released a snapshot providing insight into the Lagos entrepreneurial ecosystem. This snapshot was produced through a review of existing literature, a series of surveys and interviews, as well as stakeholder meetings."

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"In 2018, the ANDE South Africa team completed an in-depth snapshot of programs supporting entrepreneurs in Gauteng. This snapshot builds on previous efforts to identify support for entrepreneurs in South Africa."

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