The entrepreneurial society : a reform strategy for the European Union

Abstract

Launched in 2015, project FIRES (Financial and Institutional Reforms for the Entrepreneurial Society) endeavored to analyze the conditions required for smart, inclusive, and sustainable growth in the European Union, in line with the Commission’s “Europe 2020” growth strategy. At the heart of the project was the dual recognition that the Union suffers from an innovation emergency affecting its economic growth and social equality, and that this challenge could be overcome if Europe were to become a more entrepreneurial society. Ample academic research supports the hypothesis that more entrepreneurial regions and countries innovate more and see greater economic growth. Moreover, entrepreneurship provides opportunities for a great many people and is instrumental in shaping a country’s transition to a more sustainable future. Research has also shown that institutions, i.e., the rules of the game in a society, go a long way towards explaining the differences in quality and quantity of entrepreneurial venturing across countries and regions. Rather than adding to this already vast literature, the chief aim of FIRES was to translate the insights of some three decades of entrepreneurship research into actionable institutional reform proposals. In June 2018, the program officially ended after yielding a host of reports, scientific articles, and books that addressed the question of how to make the European Union (EU) more entrepreneurial and innovative from numerous perspectives. FIRES concluded with a seven-step procedure, which, if followed, would tailor a reform strategy to the needs of a country or region