Policy Forum/Knowledge Center

POLICY FORUM REPORT

"Trends in Entrepreneurship and SME Policies: Creating an Entrepreneurial Economy"
53rd Annual ICSB World Conference Pre-Conference Policy Forum
Date: June 20, 2008
Place: World Trade and Convention Center, Halifax, Nova Scotia
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POLICY FORUM OVERVIEW

The June 20, 2008 Policy Forum was the fourth 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 50 th anniversary conference in Washington, DC in 2005, followed by forums in Melbourne, Australia in 2006 and Turku, Finland in 2007.

The objective of the 2008 Policy Forum was to bring together policymakers, SME/entrepreneurship researchers and SME associations from around the world to dialogue on policy issues and questions related to stimulating a more conducive environment for entrepreneurship and SME development to contribute to economic growth. The program included panel presentations on SME/entrepreneurship policy platforms and the latest policy trends from Denmark, Ireland, China, and OECD and transition countries; on how research and advocacy efforts can be used to effectively influence policy development; and on how to assess, what some may consider to be, opposing policy choices – whether to focus policy and program initiatives on new firms, existing firms, high growth firms, or innovative enterprises; whether having targeted policies and programs for women entrepreneurs is a good policy decision; and the appropriate role for government in stimulating SME development. These are topics of concern to governments and service providers from both developed and developing countries around the world. (See Annex 1 for copy of the Forum Program).

Speakers included government policymakers, policy oriented researchers and business association representatives from Europe, the US, New Zealand, and Canada. Delegates had the opportunity to engage with these experts in invigorating discussions on key issues affecting the development of an “entrepreneurial economy”. (See Annex 2 for information on speakers and moderators). Almost 50 participants from 13 countries 1 attended, representing policymakers, researchers, entrepreneurship and enterprise centers, economic development agencies and business associations (see Participant List in Annex 3). The participant evaluation of the Forum is attached in Annex 4.

Keynote Address: " The Main Challenges in Entrepreneurship Policy"

Dr. Anders Hoffman
Director Entrepreneurship Policy, Danish Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs
Founder of the International Consortium on Entrepreneurship (ICE), Denmark
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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
Panel Session #2: Views on Perennial Policy Choice Dilemmas”
  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
Panel Session #3: “Influencing the Policy Process”
  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

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ICSB World Conference Proceedings Online Database

ICSB’s Knowledge Center is a place to share and access our collective information and knowledge collected from past ICSB conferences and participating ICSB affiliates. When ICSB decided to develop its knowledge center it reached out to the various leading companies that develop such systems.

ProQuest is a leading "aggregated database vendor" (ADV), operating internationally, which offers fee-based access to (and navigation of) more than 125 billion digital pages of world scholarship. These materials are delivered to the desktop and into the workflow of researchers in multiple fields, including art, literature, social science, physical sciences, technology, and medicine. In the field of business it is best known through its product "ABI Inform".

ICSB and ProQuest agreed to develop a new database to catalog all ICSB new proceedings (2008-forward) and to make them available to all ICSB members on the new ICSB web site. This agreement is not binding on any author submitting materials to ICSB or its affiliates. ICSB is also working on its own system of archived material (2007-backward) to be searched.

We are currently working hard to have the system available to our members.

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