How to Select, Prioritize and Evaluate Entrepreneurship Policies : An Evidence-Based Approach

Abstract: Investigating the literature on entrepreneurship policy, two major streams can be distinguished. In the first stream, some specific policies are selected and discussed. These policies can come from the author’s experiences, researches or from analyzing the related experience of some other countries. Many papers and books have been devoted to this stream, particularly to different types of SME policies. In the second stream the researches are mainly about entrepreneurship frameworks, i.e. describing the explanatory factors which influence the level of entrepreneurship within a society as a framework such as Eclectic, OECD, or GEM Framework. However the theoretical literature on first stream has been expanded very fast and many different policies have been suggested and evaluated, but the policy frameworks have been addressed by only a few authors. In addition to these two major streams directly devoted to entrepreneurship policies, there are other researches which their results can be used in designing entrepreneurship policies such as the researches investigate the role of social capital and human capital in stimulating entrepreneurship, or investigate entrepreneurship from a political economy perspective. Despite all these researches, there is still one simple important question which has not been explicitly addressed: “How entrepreneurship policies should be designed and implemented?” In other words if a policy maker in a developed or developing society wants to stimulate entrepreneurship, then among all the entrepreneurship polices developed and suggested so far, and based on the results of all the researches in this field; which entrepreneurship policies will be the most influential for that specific society? What are the criteria which based on them entrepreneurship polices should be designed or selected? Considering the limited available resources, which polices will have the highest priorities for that specific society to allocate the resources? When and how entrepreneurship policies should be evaluated? To answer these questions, this research provides a generic road map for considering the main issues and criteria when designing entrepreneurship policies in the real world. To develop such a road map, this research not only uses the results of the researches in entrepreneurship but also in public policy. One of the main points neglected in most of the related researches is that entrepreneurship policy actually is an interdisciplinary field, and is not just confined to entrepreneurship, but also can be investigated within the public policy discipline. Therefore while most of the researches have looked at entrepreneurship policy just from the entrepreneurship perspective, this research tries to use the results of the researches in policy making and public policy. Among all the approaches developed and used for policy making, this research has found evidence-based policy the most appropriate and update one. Although evidence-based policy making is not an absolute, and there are some pitfalls, but comparing the other alternatives, it summons to mind Winston Churchill’s famous description of democracy as “the worst form of government except all others”. Evidence-base policy making is simply the best we’ve got (Dunworth T. et al., 2008).