The Support Paradox in Community Enterprise Experiments in The Netherlands

Reinout Kleinhans () and Maarten van Ham
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Reinout Kleinhans: Delft University of Technology

No 9625, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: In many European countries, community entrepreneurship is increasingly considered as a means to initiate small-scale urban regeneration. However, residents in deprived communities are often viewed to lack key entrepreneurial attributes and skills. This paper reports a unique experiment in the Netherlands with nascent community enterprises which received start-up support from a private foundation. This paper investigates how active citizens perceive the benefits and drawbacks of this support. In depth analysis of transcriptions of repeated semi-structured interviews (panel design with the same respondents) with representatives of established community enterprises and resident groups were analysed. While we find positive feedback on provided support, our research provides strong evidence for a 'support paradox': the support that was intended to overcome a number of entry barriers and difficulties on the road to community entrepreneurship has in fact significantly hampered progress among several of the studied CEs.

Keywords: urban regeneration; support; active citizenship; community entrepreneurship; community enterprises; self-organisation; The Netherlands (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D71 L26 L31 O35 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 21 pages
Date: 2016-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ent, nep-ino, nep-sbm and nep-ure
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Published - published in: International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business , 2017, 31 (4), 570-589

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