Questioning the Entrepreneurial State

Karl Wennberg holds the Barbara Bergström Chair of Educational Leadership and Quality and is a research fellow at the House of Innovation, both at the Stockholm School of Economics (Sweden). He is one of the leading scholars on entrepreneurship in Europe, with over 60 published scholarly articles in high-ranking journals and 10 books. His research is on entrepreneurship, innovation policy, and organization theory, where public policy implication of theoretical and empirical research has been a common thread in his research. Christian Sandström is Senior Associate Professor of Digital Business at Jönköping International Business School (Sweden) and the Ratio Institute (Sweden). His research concerns innovation policy and the interplay between technological and institutional change.

“Austrian Economics will find the volume’s analysis very congenial to the school’s ideas. While the socialist calculation debate may be in the past, this volume shows that the arguments marshalled by the Austrian school remain relevant to current economic issues. The larger value of the book to Austrian school scholars is that it analyzes a policy-relevant issue that warrants further research.” (Randall G. Holcombe, The Review of Austrian Economics, Vol. 37 (4), 2024)“All three books provide important guideposts for organizing collective effort to develop the kinds of technologies needed to address the most important global problems of the twenty-first century. The academic credentials and scholarly perspectives of the contributors infuse Wennberg and Sandstro¨m’s edited volume with an analytical tone and comparative institutional lens that are very welcome in the conversation regarding how public policymakers should identify opportunities for encouraging innovation.” (Anita M. McGahan, Administrative Science Quarterly, October 31, 2023)“The book is written for both academics and policymakers, and it is written clearly without an assumption that readers possess a strong foundation of economic training. … Questioning the Entrepreneurial State is an excellent edited volume comprising thought provoking concerns about the viability of an entrepreneurial state. … After reading this edited volume, readers will learn not just the entrepreneurial state and criticisms, but will learn about a variety of topics on institutions, ecosystems, sustainability, and politics related to entrepreneurship and innovation.” (Christopher John Boudreaux, Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Vol. 32, 2022)

• Part I: Introductory Chapter.- Introduction.- Part II: The Entrepreneurial State: Theoretical Perspectives.- The Entrepreneurial State and the Platform Economy.- An Effectual Analysis of Markets and States.- The Entrepreneurial State: An Ownership Competence Perspective.- Innovation Without Entrepreneurship: The Pipe Dream of Mission-Oriented Innovation Policy.- Part III: The Entrepreneurial State, Entrepreneurial Universities, and Startups.- Building Local Innovation Support Systems: Theory and Practice.- Reducing Higher Education Bureaucracy and Reclaiming the Entrepreneurial University.- Cultural Ideals in the Entrepreneurship Industry.- Evaluating Evaluations of Innovation Policy: Exploring Reliability, Methods, and Conflicts of Interest.- Do Targeted R&D Grants toward SMEs Increase Employment and Demand for High Human Capital Workers?.- Part IV: The Entrepreneurial State and Sustainability Transitions.- Third-Generation Innovation Policy: System Transformation or Reinforcing Business as Usual?.- Less from More: China Built Wind Power, but Gained Little Electricity.- The Failures of the Entrepreneurial State: Subsidies to Renewable Energies in Europe.- Directionality in Innovation Policy and the Ongoing Failure of Green Deals: Evidence from Biogas, Bio-ethanol, and Fossil-Free Steel.- Part V: From the Entrepreneurial State Towards Evidence-Based Innovation Policy.- Policy Instruments for High-Growth Enterprises.- Public-Steering and Private-Performing Sectors: Success and Failures in the Swedish Finance, Telecoms, and City Planning Sectors.- The Digital Platform Economy and the Entrepreneurial State: A European Dilemma.- Collaborative Innovation Blocs and Mission-Oriented Innovation Policy: An Ecosystem Perspective.