The Entrepreneurial State Cannot Deliver Without an Entrepreneurial Society

Mark Sanders (), Erik Stam and Roy Thurik
Additional contact information
Mark Sanders: Maastricht University School of Business and Economics

A chapter in Moonshots and the New Industrial Policy, 2024, pp 259-270 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract In The Entrepreneurial State and Mission Economy, Mazzucato argues that the state should adopt a proactive and entrepreneurial approach, setting ambitious missions that inspire collective action nurtured by emotions of urgency. By defining clear goals, the state can mobilize resources and talent from both the public and private sectors. We do not challenge Mazzucato’s facts or discredit her analysis. We agree that states successfully have and perhaps should continue to play a role in mobilizing talent and other resources around urgent societal challenges. Healthcare, climate change, and inequality are not problems that “markets” will solve on their own, and relevant and competent government organizations are an essential tool in our toolbox to address them. We would even agree that the state would do well to formulate clear missions and approach them in an entrepreneurial fashion. That is, experiment with an open mind and be willing to fail and learn, rather than develop interventions on the drawing board and then stick to them because of bureaucratic or political lock-in. But all that effort will only pay off, often in many unexpected ways, if we do not succumb to the fallacy of hindsight. That is, a well-defined and entrepreneurially executed state-led mission can only succeed in also generating a stream of valuable but largely unanticipated spin-off innovations, if the conditions for acting on such opportunities are right.

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Society; State-led mission; Grand societal challenges; Spin-off innovations; E02; H11; L26; O30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:inschp:978-3-031-49196-2_14

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9783031491962

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-49196-2_14

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in International Studies in Entrepreneurship from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().