Entrepreneurship in smaller jurisdictions : appraising a glocal elite

Abstract

Entrepreneurship on smaller (often island) jurisdictions tends to suffer from the same importorientation or ‘cargo cult’ that affects many other issues: entrepreneurs are rarely locally bred but are most often ‘imported’, recruited after long stints in other, larger countries, or else must be suffered to spend regular time away in the metropole. Thus, a successful strategy for developing local entrepreneurship becomes that of luring home those citizens who are away, along with other interested expatriates. Moreover, in spite of so much talk about, and so many ongoing resources dedicated to, entrepreneurship education, there is hardly any evidence that actual and active entrepreneurs from smaller jurisdictions have nurtured, developed or perfected their business skills after, during, or thanks to some formal educational or training programme. These observations call for some sober reflections about how, if at all, entrepreneurship can be promoted effectively in smaller territories. Would it be best, and cheapest, simply to seek to attract immigrants with an entrepreneurial flair? Is there any role that education can genuinely play here? Such searching questions are raised in the context of an exploration of entrepreneurs from a scan of smaller jurisdictions worldwide, and particularly from five European island regions involved in a Leonardo da Vinci pilot project supported by the European Commission.