Title: A measurement framework for international entrepreneurship policy research: from impossible index to malleable matrix

Authors: Kevin Hindle

Addresses: Australian Graduate School of Entrepreneurship, Swinburne University of Technology, 50 Wakefield Street, Hawthorn VIC 3122, Australia

Abstract: The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), a multifaceted, multinational research programme now in its seventh year of field operation, currently dominates the field of international entrepreneurship policy research but faces a crisis of credibility. Despite having created and continuing to develop a very rich database capable of addressing many of the complexities requisite for understanding entrepreneurship at the national and international levels of analysis, GEM has chosen to disguise the depths of its potential research and policy utility through a misnamed quest for unobtainable simplicity at the centre of the project and a disorganised variety of report presentations at the periphery. Subsequent to a review of the entrepreneurial definitional literature and a resolution of its many themes into six components of entrepreneurial activity, based on Penrose|s (1959/1995) articulation of the practical meaning of |entrepreneurial services|, this paper suggests that a |malleable matrix| approach can provide a practical measurement framework capable of reporting national entrepreneurial activity in a structure that is comprehensive without being overwhelming.

Keywords: entrepreneurship policy; measurement; framework; Global Entrepreneurship Monitor; GEM; international entrepreneurship; entrepreneurial activity.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2006.008926

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2006 Vol.3 No.2, pp.139 - 182

Published online: 03 Feb 2006 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article