Editorial

I write this editorial from Bogota in Colombia, a country which does credit to the emerging and the established entrepreneurial communities around the globe. My annual visits to this beautiful part of the world confirms my understanding of the idea of and the necessities for entrepreneurial emergence. Legendary associations with drugs and crime, of feudal criminal fiefdoms of Pablo Escobar, of a groundswell of militant action against poverty degenerating into the local terrorism of FARC, were probably responsible for Colombia’s dark days as much as they provided for the tensions that have led to a major transformation of the country.

The transformation has been marked by entrepreneurial political leadership that has sought reconciliation with FARC and the unleashing of a technology-led entrepreneurial experiment. Juan Manuel Santos, the President of Colombia, signed a peace agreement by granting amnesty to 3,600 members, the last of the 7,000 guerrillas not associated with serious crime (The Economist, 2017). In the meantime, the government has aspirations for 63 per cent of the country being connected to broadband by 2018, taking advantage of approximately 44 million connections among 24 million mobile phone users which represents about 50 per cent of the population in the third largest Spanish speaking population in the world.

Then there is the ‘city of eternal spring’, Medellin, more appreciated these days as one of the most innovative cities in the world. Rapid advances in public transportation, marked by the much-lauded Metro train system which moves half a million people every day while reducing the city’s CO2 emissions by 175,000 tons each day, coupled with a public-bike share system that rivals the one in London, the development of the Espana Library and a cultural centre, all support the new dynamics of Medellin’s innovative capabilities. Once renowned for being Pablo Escobar country and also as Colombia’s industrial heartland and a key centre in the textile industry, Medellin has now emerged as the entrepreneurial capital of Colombia. Much of the credit for this transformation goes to direct government intervention with the dynamic Mayor Sergio Fajardo and the city government being instrumental in forging alliances between businesses and communities. The gradual evolution of effective and socially innovative public–private partnerships and networks has occurred as part of a pronounced governance strategy and the ability of many of its up-and-coming institutions such as Ruta, Innnpulsa, Espacio, pulsosocial and the Founder Institute, ¹

to name a few, to deliver results.

Comparisons are inevitably made with the successful North American and European systems and the creation of robust ecosystems of businesses, public policy actions, private–public partnerships and institutions without which, apparently, we cannot conceive of an entrepreneurial city or a region. Such comparisons and the establishment of many inevitable structural necessities may well be useful ways of grasping the emergence of entrepreneurship. They follow time-honoured methods of analysing phenomena which drill down to observations of entrepreneurial intentions, perceived entrepreneurial capabilities and other measures which are then compared to other countries in the world. Much loved by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor and its aficionados, such an approach may be missing the point of what happens and why in a unique environment. Entrepreneurship emerges in messy conditions which characterize change, and not necessarily through the establishment of secure establishments as a priority, that many policy advocates assume and promote.

Most analyses of the emergence of entrepreneurship in countries such as Colombia might ignore the strength that lies in the duality of recent experience in the country—the political process and the removal of the cobwebs shrouding history through a techno-centric economic programme. The peace process has begun to remove the fear that helped to foster destructive entrepreneurship catapulting the drug barons of Colombia to legendary fame and fortune. The removal of this constraint on productive entrepreneurship has created a new opportunity space for the country and its citizens. In that space, we find Medellin’s remarkable resurgence, with Bogota and Cali being other cities providing for possible future prospects for economic and social change. But that still leaves a considerable amount of space for many rent seekers who might seek alternative opportunities for short-term and unproductive or even destructive forms of entrepreneurship. That void would need much attention by the government, the country’s institutions and Colombia’s citizens over the coming years without the pressures of achieving comparative economic status or high marks in popular ranking exercises. Colombia will fashion its own emergence and entrepreneurial destiny.

The JEIEE’s mission is to capture the stories of entrepreneurial emergence, to follow the economic and social trials and tribulations of countries such as Colombia, and narrate them with rigour and empathy.

So, for this issue, we are happy to share with you all a variety of critical insights from our authors. In no particular order, you will find the first of a few selected vignettes (Sketches from Venice), from our 15th International Entrepreneurship Forum conference held in Venice in December 2016. ²

The selected two short articles on public policy are written by two key economists from two leading global institutions, Jonathan Potter, Senior Economist at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris, and Giuseppe Gramigna, Chief Economist at the Small Business Administration (SBA) of the USA in Washington. They provide an overview of the shape and direction of public policies that have been developed to support SMEs in the developed world. Our objective in publishing these important contributions is to try and formulate a picture of the systems, methods and practices of public policy which are used as benchmarks for countries round the world. In the private sphere of venture capital, we have an empirical article by Sarita Mishra on how syndication in venture capital investment in India augments the supply and use of venture finance. Amarpreet Ghura reflects critically on the challenges faced by organizations as they cope working with the emergence of Generation Z intrapreneurs, while Alexander Brem and Nivedita Agarwal provide an in-depth case study of frugal innovation involving solar-power-based automated teller machines (ATMs) in India. Ganesh Natarajan, erstwhile CEO of Zensar, a leading software firm in India recalls the firm’s endeavours in entrepreneurial organizational building in the specific context of an emerging economy. A fascinating new book on entrepreneurial opportunities edited by Silke Tegtmeier and Catherine Leger Jarniou is reviewed comprehensively by Neha Gopinath. Finally, this issue also sees an invitation to researchers, scholars and reflective practitioners and policymakers to respond to a call for papers of Transnational Entrepreneurship, an emerging and powerful new institution for international business practice by entrepreneurs with dual or even multiple habitus.

So, there we are with a compendium of interesting articles reflecting depth, variety and value in the authors’ understanding of public policy, frugal innovation, Generation Z intrapreneurs, entrepreneurial organizations and entrepreneurial opportunity. We hope you will enjoy reading the articles and contributing to the emerging wealth of insights on entrepreneurship in the future.