Start-up factories,transnational entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial ecosystems: unpacking the lure of start-up accelerator programmes

This paper examines the role of accelerator programmes in promoting transnational entrepreneurship. Designed to assist the growth of start-ups by providing seed finance and structured entrepreneurship support, these programmes are now a prominent feature in many entrepreneurial ecosystems around the world. Drawing on in-depth qualitative evidence focused on one particular programme, the paper shows accelerators play an important intermediary or ‘brokerage mechanism’ providing start-ups with enhanced relational connections and networks. Transnational entrepreneurs attracted to these programmes are highly focused on exploiting these networks whilst maintaining multiple levels of embeddedness in various contexts to maximize the opportunities afforded by accelerators. While many governments are attempting to replicate accelerators programmes within the public sector, the paper concludes that such attempts may prove problematic within weaker entrepreneurial ecosystems.     

跨国场域下的企业家精神、国家与社会网络：中国新移民的个案分析

以在新加坡的中国新移民企业家为个案,简要地讨论企业家和企业家精神的内涵及其在全球化时代的展延;分析了新移民企业家跨国知识与技术优势在新兴企业成长中扮演关键作用;论述了跨国移民企业家产生与发展的不可或缺的外在因素以及由此形成的双赢策略;进而阐述跨国性的理论架构如何有助于解释华人企业家在当代世界和中国社会经济发展中的作用。     

Immigrant entrepreneurs,diasporas, and exports

This paper demonstrates the positive effect of immigrant entrepreneurs on manufacturing exports over and above that of diasporas. Using small-scale regional administrative data, our instrumental variable estimates of export gravity models imply that ceteris paribus, that is, holding constant the total number of immigrants, the expected protrade effect of a migrant becoming an entrepreneur amounts to an average increase of US$5,946 in the export flows toward her country of origin. Besides these dyadic effects, immigrant entrepreneurs unlike nonentrepreneurial immigrants raise a region's overall competitiveness and export flows toward other destinations as well.     

Wealthy-gentry politics: How are capitalists in China chosen for the ‘Houses’?

Choosing individual private entrepreneurs to be members of the People's Congress (PC) or the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) is one of the most important mechanisms for ‘cooperative capitalism’ in China. This article aims to answer two questions: First, what are the differences between factors for winning a seat at the PC and a seat at the CPPCC, respectively? Second, is there any difference between factors that have a significant impact on winning a seat at the county-township level and the prefecture-and-above level of the PC or CPPCC? Based on empirical findings, I have coined the term ‘wealthy-gentry politics’ to conceptualise the fact that behaving as a member of the socially responsible ‘gentry’ plays an increasingly significant role at the higher level and in the PC compared to the lower level and the CPPCC, while economic wealth is just a threshold and party membership is not a guarantee.

挑选私营企业家个体进入两会是中国“合作型资本主义”的一个最重要机制。本文回答两个问题。1）获得人大代表的因素与获得政协委员的因素有何区别？2）获得县镇级两会代表和地级以上两会代表的影响因素是否有区别？ 根据实证研究,笔者发明“财—绅政治”的概念来描述一个事实：负有社会责任的社会贤达在高一级的人大较之低一级的政协发挥了越来越大的作用,财富仅仅是门槛,党籍也不起决定性作用。     

(Re)framing identity claims: European and state institutions as opportunity windows for group reinforcement

How do we account for the reinforcement of identity particularisms despite transnational integration? This paper addresses the question by comparing two ethnolinguistic groups, Silesians and Kashubs in Poland. It is argued that in order to obtain state protection and tools to develop and survive, ethnic entrepreneurs adjust to institutions and discourses. Census politics, state laws' elaboration, transnational institutions represent openings to which groups adjust by reframing identity claims. In doing so, they re‐imagine and reinforce their communities. Following Rogers Brubaker, group‐making is presented as an eventful process where ethnic elites invest identity categories with groupness by taking advantage of opportunity windows at hand. Further, tracing changing political opportunities, strategic adjustments and groups' boomerang effect bid, the paper embeds identity groups within the social movement literature.     

意大利工业区与华人的双重挑战

论文分析了全球性竞争压力对工业区适应机制的影响及工业区的竞争优势以及工业区内部形成的华人经济的潜在威胁,探讨了在新的条件下将这种威胁转化为新的发展机遇的可能性。认为华人经济的特殊优势使华人企业越来越活跃,但却使当地企业日益萎缩。这反过来又促使当地经济整体进行转型;华人企业家的某些优势在于其跨地区和跨国网络;华人移民对其祖籍国潜在商业伙伴的能力和品德有深度了解,如果能发挥中介作用,意大利当地企业就能使其工业生产及产品销售国际化。     

Geographies of steam: mapping the entrepreneurial activities of steam engineers in France during the second half of the eighteenth century

Entrepreneurship played a crucial role in the development and diffusion of steam technology. To account for this, we need to map the entrepreneurial activities that helped spread steam technology across Europe and beyond. Because tracing this history’s contours requires attending to local contexts, strategies and uses along with large-scale trajectories, it makes sense to speak of historical ‘geographies’ rather than of steam technology’s historical ‘geography’. Speaking of geographies in the plural also refers to the recognition that places can simultaneously be located in multiple spatial situations, their geographical identities the product of historical work, negotiation and perspective. To illustrate these points, this essay begins by reflecting on what might be called the ‘spatial turn’ in the history of technology and the role of entrepreneurship in the spread of steam technology in France during the second half of the eighteenth century, which is the historical focus of this essay. It then discusses a small number of representative cases of entrepreneurial engagement with steam technology in France and concludes by considering what this tells us about the relationship between the French state and its regions and the impact of the French Revolution in this geographically complex history.     

中国企业家成长路径的地理学研究

通过建构中国786位企业家四个成长阶段空间信息数据库,本文运用地理空间分析方法和复杂网络模型,在对企业家成长时空规律分析的基础上,对中国207个城市在企业家成长中发挥的作用进行了研究,并着重对在企业家成长中发挥重要作用的30个城市的角色进行了精准识别,得出以下结论：①中国企业家成长在空间上呈现出分散-集中-分散的演化过程,长三角地区是中国企业家成长最为依赖的空间载体;②企业家成长视角下的中国城市创新网络等级层次明显,北京市以绝对优势成为中国城市创新网络的核心;③在30个扮演重要角色的城市中,只有北京与宁波两市同时身兼两个角色,其中北京为成功兼创业型,宁波为成功兼奠基型。     

马来西亚华商中小企业发展研究

本文分殖民时期、独立建国时期、新经济政策实施时期、国家经济管制淡化时期和金融危机以后五个阶段,分析马来西亚华商中小企业的发展状况及影响其发展的政策因素。作者认为,华商中小企业一直是马来西亚华人经济的基础,是马来西亚民族经济的最基本成份之一,在推动国家经济发展过程中起着不可替代的作用,应加强对这一问题的研究。     

Policy entrepreneurs and promotion of Australian state knowledge economies

Policy entrepreneurs seek to shift the status quo in given areas of public policy. In doing so, they work closely with others, and their activities call for high levels of political skill. This article examines the actions of policy entrepreneurs who promoted the development of knowledge economies in two Australian states: Queensland and Victoria. During the past two decades, national and sub-national governments around the world have sought to nurture knowledge economies within their borders. Our analysis of knowledge economy advocacy improves understanding of how specific individuals – as strategic team builders – can promote major policy change. This focus on team work and coalition-building as central elements of the process of policy entrepreneurship offers a corrective to some earlier studies that inappropriately conferred lone hero status to policy entrepreneurs.

政策企业家们试图改变公共政策特定领域内的现状。在这个过程中,他们与他人密切合作,他们的活动呼唤高水平的政治技巧。本文考察了政策企业家在澳大利亚的昆士兰和维多利亚两个州促进知识经济的行动。在过去二十年里,世界各地国家以及次国家政府都想在自己的版图内培育知识经济。我们对知识经济促进情况的分析有助于更好地理解何以某些个人如战略团队的建设者们可以促成重要的战略转变。本文聚焦团队工作以及联盟建设,将其视为政策企业家活动的核心因素。这样一种视角是对以往过分强调个人英雄的一种修正。