2011 ICSB World Conference Pre-Conference Policy Forum

Chair:  Professor Anders Lundström, Chair of Sterring Committee for ICSB 2011; Professor Pontus Braunerhjelm, Managing Director of Swedish Entrepreneurship Forum; Ulrika Stuart Hamilton, Deputy Managing Director, Swedish Entrepreneurship Forum

• Moderator: Deputy Managing Director, Ulrika Stuart Hamilton, Swedish Entrepreneurship Forum
• Professor Pontus Braunerhjelm, Managing Director of Swedish Entrepreneurship Forum, on Global trends and challenges
• Dr Göran Marklund, VINNOVA, on Challenges and innovation - Global trends and strategies in policy implementation
• Dr Martin Lyes, Enterprise Ireland, on Views on Entrepreneurship, Innovation and SME policies

Session A.1. - IPREG
Presentations of the costs of SME and entrepreneurship policy as well as the context for different economies. Presentations of country reports of Sweden, Poland, Belgium (Flanders), Austria and Spain.

• Moderator: Professor Anders Lundström, Project Manager, Growth Analysis
• Dr Peter Vikström, Growth Analysis,
• Ms Els Vermander, Department of Economy, Science and Innovation, Flanders, Belgium
• Dr Pavel Glodek, The Foundation for Promotion of Entrepreneurship and
• Dr  Matthias Fink, Vienna University of Economic and Business, Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship

Session A.2. - GEM 
Results of 2010 study. Special topic: innovation measures built in GEM, and why they differ across countries.

• Moderator: Dr Kristie Seawright.
• Jonathan Levie on special GEM innovations survey, Strathclyde University, UK
• Donna Kelly, Babson College, USA
• José Ernesto Amoros, Universidad del Desarrollo, Chile
• Lars Jagrén

Session B.1. - World Bank Report  "Doing Business".

• Dr Svetlana Bagaudinova, World Bank
• Economic Effects of Regulatory Burden, Dr Johan Eklund, Jönköping International Business School
• Comments and discussion: Professors Paul Reynolds and David Storey

Session B 2. - SME policies in developing countries.
Cases from Egypt, Singapore, China and Argentina.

• Moderator: Professor Lois Stevenson
• Policy Framework for fostering entrepreneurship development in Egypt. MrAmr Gohar, President Middle East Council for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (MCSBE)
• Policy Challenges for Tunisian Entrepreneurship and the Implecations of the GEM-Tunisia Findings, Professor Faysal Mansouri, University of Sousse and GEM-Tunisia Team Leader
• SME and Entrepreneurship Policy: The Latin American Perspective, ProfessorRodrigo Varela, Columbia
• Ruben Ascua, ICSB-affiliate, Argentina

Session C.1.- SME policy in Japan and South Korea
Responding to a crisis: Japanese SME:s after the earthquake. Innovation in a mature economy.

• Moderator: Dr Jenni Nordborg, Vinnova
• Mr Maeda, Chairman and CEO, Organization for Small and Medium Enterprises and Regional Innovation, Japan
• Elettra Ronchi, OECD task force
• Professor Sang-Chul Park, Gothenburg University
• Professor Kwan Hee Yoo, Business School, Korea University

Session C.2. - Perspectives on Small Business Act in US and the EU

• Mr Denny Dennis, Senior Fellow at the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB)
• Mr Stefan Fölster, Head Economist at Swedish Enterprise

Session D.1: New Firm Creation: A Global Assesment of National Factors

• Professor Paul Reynolds

Session D. 2: Presentations of Global Entrepreneurship DevelopmentIndex.
Measuring entrepreneurial behaviour and output across countries.

• Professor Zoltan Acs

What can be learned?
What do we take with us into the main ICSB conference?

• Moderator: Dan Hjalmarsson, Director General, Growth Analysis
• David Storey, Svetlana Baugaudinova, Kristie Seawright and Elisabeth Gatewood

2010 ICSB World Conference Pre-Conference Policy Forum

Summary:

The world is hopefully ending its worst economic recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s.While the recession has impacted various countries and various sectors within those countries in different ways, small business has typically been one group that has been seriously, adversely impacted. But, how much? And, in what ways? The purpose of this year's ICSB policy pre-conference was to begin developing a record of the impact of the Great Recession on new and small businesses and government's response in the face of it. The initial appearance suggests that small businesses were often swamped and their interests ignored or lost in the pressing need for government to address overarching economic and financial issues. Yet, that may not be the case, or at least not totally so.And, that may not be bad, or at least not totally so.While our collective memory is fresh, it is well that we start to answer these questions and initiate the process of learning the lessons the Great Recession should have taught us.

This year’s session established that the Great Recession impacted individual countries and the businesses very differently. However, most suffered serious adverse consequences. Panelists in the morning session, Kristie Seawright of GEM and Svetlana Bagaudinova of the World Bank,adressed ‘The Setting’ while the afternoon panelists each presented a ‘Country Overview’ for their respective regions – Argentina, Canada, China, Japan, and the Netherlands. The final part of the agenda focused on the ‘Issues’ with presentations by Brian Gibson (Governance), Denny Dennis (Real Estate and Finance) and Paul Reynolds (Job Creation). The information presented during the day showed attendees that individual government efforts to cushion the blows had greater and lesser effects, but all of those efforts were swamped by macro-economic events. Anyone include macro-economic effects and the business cycle in their management syllabus?

The 2010 Pre-conference Policy Forum was the sixth in a series offered as a preconference event to the Annual World Conference of the International Council for Small Business (ICSB). The first ICSB Policy Forum was held in conjunction with the 50th anniversary conference in Washington, DC in 2005, followed by forums in Melbourne, Australia in 2006; Turku, Finland in 2007; Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada in 2008; and Seoul, South Korea in 2009.

The aim of the Policy Forum was to bring together policymakers, SME/entrepreneurship researchers and SME associations from around the world to dialogue on relevant policy issues and questions. Attendance at the event was approximately 75-100 delegates from over 16 difference countries. The event included an international panel session and an extended Q&A period. Panelistsl discussed the effects of the global financial crisis on the SME sector, together with the responses of their governments and the adequacy of the response from an SME perspective. ICSB enjoys a direct linkage to major policy players on the world stage who understand the impact of small and medium businesses and entrepreneurship as a powerful driving force in economic development.

“Affects of the Recession of Nascent Entrepreneurs: Perspectives from the GEM Project”
‐ Kristie Seawright, Executive Director, Global Entrepreneurship Monitor

“Doing Business in 2009: Governments Responding”
‐ Svetlana Bagaudinova, Senior Private Sector Development Officer, World Bank

Argentina – Rubén Ascúa, President, ICSB Argentina
Canada ‐ Ted Mallett, Vice President and Chief Economist, Canadian Federation of Independent Business
China ‐ Dr. Wu Xiaobo, Dean, School of Management, Zhejiang University
Japan ‐ Tsugio Ide, Executive Director, ISBC
Netherlands – Rob van der Horst, Director Brussels' office, EIM Business Policy and Research

Governance
‐ Brian Gibson, Professor of Accounting, New England University, Australia

Real Estate and Finance
‐ Denny Dennis, Senior Research Fellow, NFIB Research Foundation, USA

2009 ICSB World Conference Pre-Conference Policy Forum

Date: Sunday, June 21, 2009
Place: COEX InterContinental, Seoul, South Korea

Summary:
The 2009 International Council for Small Business (ICSB) Pre-Conference Policy Forum provided a unique environment for today’s leading educators, researchers, business development officials and practitioners to discuss the topic of entrepreneurship policy at a time of crisis. Delegates participated from over 16 countries. Ms. Lois Stevenson (International Development Research Centre IDRC, Egypt) began the proceeding, speaking of the need for governments to promote entrepreneurship through proactive policies. Governments must recognize the variety of ways in which their policies can impact on entrepreneurship, which includes policy areas such as education, regulation, science and technology. It is estimated that SMEs contribute around 65-70% of GDP in many countries, emphasizing the importance of creating a dynamic start-up market for entry and exit as well as developing policies to create a climate and culture of entrepreneurship.  

The first panel session titled ‘SME and Entrepreneurship Policy in Turbulent Times’ included speakers from the USA, Australia, Egypt and Korea. Each panelist described the effects of the financial crisis on the SME sector, together with the responses of their governments and the adequacy of the response from an SME perspective. It appears that most policy responses of government tend to focus heavily on short-term bail-out solutions, failing to address the need to prepare for the recovery period. Professor Hoon was right to stress that the key question is what happens as the crisis recedes, when experience from previous recessions suggest the role of innovation is likely to be paramount.

The second panel session focused on Policy Implications of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) project, showing the important contribution of entrepreneurship to economic development over a wide range of countries. GEM focuses on the attitudes, activities and aspirations of populations around the world in relation to entrepreneurship. Panelists presented evidence from Slovenia, the Netherlands, Brazil, Argentina and the United Kingdom to show how GEM is currently being used by policy makers. GEM is an important part of the evidence base for policy making in these countries, proving a useful way of benchmarking a country’s performance in terms of entrepreneurship internationally. Argentina is a good example showing how GEM data has contributed to the increasing visibility of entrepreneurship in the country, charting an increasing entrepreneurial attitude in the population over 10 years. In Korea, GEM results emphasize a need to promote awareness of entrepreneurship amongst the population and in particular, to focus on innovation and the creative sectors. The example of GEM demonstrates the important contribution that robust research can make to the evidence base for policy making.

Program

2008 POLICY FORUM REPORT

2008 POLICY FORUM OVERVIEW

Dr. Anders Hoffman
Director Entrepreneurship Policy, Danish Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs
Founder of the International Consortium on Entrepreneurship (ICE), Denmark
Download PPT

Panel Session #1: “International Experiences with SME/Entrepreneurship Policy: Issues and Trends”

1. "From SME Policy to Entrepreneurship Policy: the case of the Republic of Ireland”
   Ms. Rosemary Sexton, Regional Director, Enterprise Ireland
2. “The SME Policy challenges in China and Transition Economies”
   Dr. David Smallbone, Professor Small Business and Entrepreneurship and Associate Director of the Small Business Research Centre (SBRC), Kingston University, UK

1. “SME Policy or Entrepreneurship Policy?”
   Rosemary Sexton, Regional Director, Enterprise Ireland
2. “Policy to foster startups or highgrowth enterprises?”
   Dr. Anders Hoffman, Director of Entrepreneurship Policy, Danish Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs
3. “When is policy for Innovative entrepreneurship a good policy choice?”
   Dr. Zoltan Acs, Director, Center for Entrepreneurship and Public Policy, School of Public Policy, George Mason University, USA
4. “Policy to foster women’s enterprise or not?”
   Ms. Julie Weeks, President and CEO, Womenable, Michigan, USA
5. “SME policy options: Business environment policy or interventionist policy?”
   Denny Dennis, Senior Research Fellow, NFIB Research Foundation, Washington DC

1. “Does research influence policy”
   Dr. Claire Massey, Professor, Enterprise Development and Director, New Zealand Centre for SME Research, Massey University, Wellington, NZ
2. “Managing the policy research nexus”
   Dr. Ian Drummond, Senior Researcher in Enterprise and Small Business, Enterprise Directorate, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, UK
3. “The effective policyinfluence role of SME Associations”
   Benne Van Popta, Deputy Secretary General, Royal Dutch Association of SMEs (MKB Nederland), the Netherlands