ENTREPRENEURSHIP A TO FOR NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Entrepreneurship as a Tool for
Economic Development -
Experiences from Eastern Africa
Kristina Henricson Briggs (Institutionen för
teknikens ekonomi och organisation)
Göteborg : Chalmers University of Technology,
2013. - 35 s.
[Licentiatavhandling]
Entrepreneurship as a tool for economic
development became an item on the
development aid agenda in the years after
World War II. After having fallen out of
fashion, it returned in the 1980s, when the
fallacies of other economic development
interventions had become apparent. The notion
that entrepreneurship is a key for economic
growth is today an important part of national
development strategies in both developed and
developing countries. As a means of
introducing a more organized approach to
entrepreneurship and a model of encouraging
it, business incubator initiatives are established
in developing countries. Such initiatives are
intended to diversify economies, commercialize
technologies and to create jobs and wealth.
This thesis focuses on how entrepreneurs are
supported through business incubators and
discusses some implications of business
incubator initiatives in developing countries.
Research has previously shown that there is
unclarity regarding the effectiveness of certain
interventions, such as business incubators, on
economic development. A deeper understanding
of business incubation initiatives as means for
economic development is therefore motivated.
The research underlying this thesis was
conducted on a single case in a village in
Uganda. Here, students from Sweden aimed to
establish a business incubator, starting in
2007. A study of this social entrepreneurship
project was performed during 2009 and 2010.
Data collection methods have included semi-
structured interviews and participant observation
and have been complemented by a literature
study. The thesis considers issues related to
how entrepreneurship and specifically business
incubation is utilized as a tool for economic
development. It contributes to the literature by
discussing how and under what conditions it
is valuable to translate the concept of
business incubation from the developed to the
developing world. It furthermore suggests that
mobilization of entrepreneurship may be more
fruitful than attempts to create it, and posits
that project initiators need awareness of the
risk of falling into ethnocentric perspectives.
Based on the findings, areas for possible
further research are outlined and discussed.
The text thus points to two other possible
areas for further enquiry: first, alternative
forms of business incubation and alternatives
to business incubation as a tool for economic
development; secondly, the relation between
entrepreneurship initiatives and other activities
supporting economic development. The
research is aimed at contributing to the
knowledge around social entrepreneurship and
entrepreneurship as a tool for economic
development.
Nyckelord: entrepreneurship, economic
development, business incubation, Africa