TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Henrekson, Magnus
AU  - Stenkula, Mikael
        TI  - Bottom-up Policies Trump Top-down Missions
        PY  - 2023/Sep/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 16487
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp16487
        AB  - Mission-oriented innovation policies are becoming increasingly popular among policymakers and scholars. We maintain that these policies are based on an overly mechanistic view of innovation and economic growth, suggesting that a more bottom-up approach is called for. By invoking an entrepreneurial ecosystem perspective, we point out that innovative entrepreneurship requires many other actors—besides the entrepreneur—whose skills and abilities are necessary to realize an entrepreneurial project. When mission-oriented policies play a large role in the economy, connections between actors in the ecosystem risk becoming distorted. A functioning and well-balanced entrepreneurial ecosystem requires instead an institutional framework that levels the playing field for potential entrepreneurs and encourages productive entrepreneurship. 
To promote this kind of system, we discuss in more detail eight key areas where appropriate horizontal or bottom-up policy measures can foster innovation and, in the end, the welfare-enhancing productive entrepreneurship policymakers and scholars strive for.
        KW  - institutions
KW  - entrepreneurship policy
KW  - entrepreneurial ecosystem
KW  - collaborative innovation bloc
KW  - public choice
        ER  -