Money alone is not enough. Also, not for young refugees and migrants aspiring to become self-employed. They might be the necessary to survive, the idea to explore an opportunity or the aspirations towards growth and expansion like any other entrepreneur. Likewise, there are various forms in which they will become self-employed: it might be solo or hybrid self-employed, a micro or small enterprise, and even a medium sized one. Ans in all cases (external) financing will be needed to start and develop the new ventures but knowledge as well how to use it. The aim to the Young Migrant Entrepreneurs Capacity Building project (in brief YMCB in this guide) is to develop an innovative approach to support young migrants’ entrepreneurship through a combination of education, training, and mentoring. The overall connotation is that access to finance deals with the possibility that individuals or enterprises have to access financial services, including credit, deposit, payment, or insurances provided by third parties – formal and informal. Poor access to finance limits individuals, households, and entrepreneurs to function. Access to finance is expected to benefit society at large by accelerating economic growth and helping to raise income for those in the lower end of the income distribution pyramid in reducing income inequality and poverty. But that is only one face of the same coin. Over the past years it has become evident that effective access to finance is determined by: - How well-prepared the prospective migrant/refugee entrepreneurs are to get started - The level of preparation of trainers and coaches working with migrant or refugee entrepreneurs and how well they understand the context their clients live and operate - The level of understanding of staff for FI’s and the degree to which appraisal procedures do not automatically exclude this group as potential clients
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With this paper, it is illustrated that a focus on entrepreneurship training in the nature and wilderness sector is relevant for diverse organisations and situations. The first curricula on nature entrepreneurship are currently being developed. In this paper the authors describe a project that focusses on educating the next generation of nature entrepreneurs, reflect on the Erasmus Intensive Program ‘European Wilderness Entrepreneur’ and the Wild10 World Café on nature entrepreneurship training. Sharing and learning from experiences is highly recommended to further develop and strengthen the curricula while considering the dynamic context of nature conservation and restoration of ecological processes.
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This chapter discusses the role of education in the preparation of the next generation of entrepreneurs in nature conservation. Departing from the traditional conservation education, which emphasizes ecological management, the chapter is a plea for incorporating entrepreneurship in the curricula of educational programmes on rewilding ecosystems. An Erasmus Intensive Programme on European Wilderness Entrepreneurship is presented as a case study. A set of competences is defined and operationalized based on the evaluation of the first edition of the programme undertaken in Rewilding Europe’s pilot area in Western Iberia. Aspects of the learning strategies and learning environment are presented and reviewed. The conclusion of this chapter is that to learn wilderness entrepreneurship competences, an environment should be created in which students, teachers and stakeholder co-learn at the boundaries of their comfort zones.
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The emergence of organic planning practices in the Netherlands introduces new, non-conventional, local actors initiating bottom-up urban developments. Dissatisfied with conventional practices and using opportunities during the 2008 financial crisis, these actors aim to create social value, thus challenging prevailing institutions. Intrigued by such actors becoming more present and influential in urban planning and development processes, we aim to identify who they are. We use social entrepreneurship and niche formation theories to analyse and identify three types of social entrepreneurs. The first are early pioneers, adopting roles of a developer and end-user, but lacking position and power to realize goals. Secondly, by acting as boundary spanners and niche entrepreneurs, they evolve towards consolidated third sector organizations in the position to realize developments. A third type are intermediate agents facilitating developments as boundary spanners and policy entrepreneurs, without pursuing urban development themselves but aiming at realizing broader policy goals. Our general typology provides a rich picture of actors involved in bottom-up urban developments by applying theories from domains of innovation management and business transition management to urban planning and development studies. It shows that the social entrepreneurs in bottom-up urban development can be considered the result of social innovation, but this social innovation is set within a neoliberal context, and in many cases passively or actively conditioned by states and markets.
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All over the world entrepreneurs drive changes. They develop new products and services, inspire others and take decisions that result in growth of their businesses. But the world around entrepreneurs is changing and so are entrepreneurs. Life-long selfemployment or permanent wage employment are of the past. And the way people perceive self-employment is changing as well. And so must our thinking. Changes in our society call for policies and programmes in support of enterprising people. Diversity, mobility and connectivity offer new opportunities for enterprising people. Markets are changing, become more accessible and there is less need to be bound physically to one place for an entrepreneur. New avenues for business are open thanks to our improved access to information, our connectivity globally through social media and our ability to travel freely and frequently from one country to another. With less focus on life-long (self) employment people now combine paid work (or unpaid – house- work) with self-employment, or opt for just parttime entrepreneurship. New, hybrid forms of enterprising emerge. This combining of work with self-employment is rather common in developing countries, but in Europe it is a phenomenon not yet reported on in statistics and for which policy makers and service providers have no answers yet. Neither exist clear definitions or classifications. This book may serve as an eye-opener: hybrid entrepreneurs are indeed around us and deserve our attention. The research unit Financial Inclusion and New Entrepreneurship of The Hague University of Applied Science challenges policy makers, academics and service providers (such as educational institutes, business advisers and financial institutions) to pay more attention to hybrid entrepreneurs, those enterprising people who intend to create new values for a fair and sustainable society. They might not yet been seen, but they exist…..
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Why is it that we know and still act as if we do not know? SMEs are considered engines of job creation and therefore growth and generation of income but is it really true that the solo self-employed and micro entrepreneurs will become small or medium entrepreneurs, e.g. graduate? We knew in the 80’s that this assumption needed to be looked at critically. Research revealed that graduation hardly existed. Practitioners in MSME support and development programmes entertain few illusions about their programmes actually leading to graduation, while NGO and Government policy officers, from behind their desks, often presume that graduation occurs frequently. Actual graduation rates and the extent to which they can be attributed to interventions remain an unresolved and important issue. After more than three decades it is justified to the question whether it is still true that graduation hardly exists? If that is the case one needs to take a critical look into prevailing policies and programs in support of the SME sector.
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The world needs more jobs to meet United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 8 and to keep up with expected population growth. Policymakers stimulate start-ups due to their expected job-generating effect. Despite the increased number of solo self-employed, percentages on graduation from small to larger enterprises are low. This study focuses on entrepreneurs who create jobs, and have passed ‘the one-employee threshold’. What are the considerations of the solo self-employed when making the decision to hire their first employee? 27 Interviews were conducted with entrepreneurs in developed and developing countries. The analysis shows that solo self-employed have considerations about time, skills, trust and opportunities when hiring their first employee. The study finds evidence of effectual behaviour. Trust is important: trust in others (the first employee) and trust in yourself (becoming an employer). To stimulate job creation, policymakers should stimulate effectual behavior that enhances the self-efficacy of the solo self-employed. This is a draft chapter/article. The final version is available in Unlocking Regional Innovation and Entrepreneurship edited by Iréne Bernhard, PhD, Urban Gråsjö, PhD, School of Business, Economics and IT, University West and Charlie Karlsson, Professor Emeritus, Jönköping University and Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden, published in 2021, Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd https://doi.org/10.4337/9781800371248
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Publicatie naar aanleiding van de door Stadslab European Urban Design Laboratory georganiseerde Master Class met als thematiek het ontwerpen van een Innovative District voor de Poolse stad Lublin. De Master Class werd gevolgd door 8 internationale deelnemers en stond onder supervisie van Didier Rebois (Europan, Parijs), Marc Glaudemans (Fontys) en Juliette van der Meijden (Fontys)
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Financial constraints and risk taking are two well-established determinants of firm performance, however, no research analyzes how these variables are connected in the context of a high risk environment. Using data from microfinance clients in Tanzania, we derive a novel financial constraints measure and incorporate a psychometric risk taking scale. Results confirm the importance of access to finance and risk attitudes for business development. Also, we provide preliminary evidence for an interaction between financial constraints and risk taking. Financial constraints “throw sand in the wheels” and protect risk taking entrepreneurs from the negative impact of risk taking on microenterprise performance.
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