Entrepreneurship Policy in Finland: Quest for New Jobs

Abstract

Entrepreneurship is tied to the context with the supply of entrepreneurs varying across nations because of differences in the values and cultures (Hayton et al. 2002). Although public policy cannot be used to change culture thus stimulating entrepreneurship in the short term (Baumol 1990), it can be used to influence the institutional context. Following the context description model of Lundström and Stevenson (2002, 2005), Heinonen and Hytti (2008) describe the context of the entrepreneurial activity and entrepreneurship policy in Finland. A relatively high education level, combined with both strong innovation performance and the positive development of the venture capital market, characterizes the Finnish context (Heinonen and Hytti 2008). According to Doing Business (2008), Finland is among the top performing countries in terms of ease of doing business. According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) study, the conditions for entrepreneurship are generally favorable (Stenholm et al. 2008).