Many countries are seeking to increase economic growth and job creation. To achieve these goals, entrepreneurship and innovation are essential and provide the basis for the creation of high growth companies or “gazelles”.

The Entrepreneurial Ecosystem

Entrepreneurship thrives in ecosystems in which multiple stakeholders play key roles. Policy-makers at the international, national, regional and local levels all have important roles to play in setting the appropriate legal and fiscal frameworks to encourage entrepreneurship and in filling market gaps as necessary.

Higher education institutions have a critical role as intellectual hubs in entrepreneurial ecosystems by serving as incubators for innovation and research, and focal points for collaboration among researchers, students, professors, companies and entrepreneurs.

Foundations, NGOs and other organizations can play important facilitation or intermediary roles, often helping to link various stakeholders. Most important are the champions (often serial entrepreneurs but also educators, staff or students) who leverage their social capital and serve as catalysts for building the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Research and Data

Research and data is essential for better understanding the level of entrepreneurship in countries and regions as well as for identifying key policy drivers. A broad framework is needed to effectively assess entrepreneurship and capture a richer and more nuanced set of outcomes.

To measure effectively, better data is needed, including internationally comparable statistics. Recent work in this area can be found the OECD website.