A Framework for Addressing and Measuring Entrepreneurship

36 Pages Posted: 5 Feb 2008 Last revised: 22 Feb 2008

See all articles by Nadim Ahmad

Nadim Ahmad

Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD)

Anders Hoffmann

Government of the Kingdom of Denmark - Danish Enterprise and Construction Authority

Date Written: January 2008

Abstract

In recent years entrepreneurship has become a buzzword that's entered the mainstream. Politicians continuously cite its importance and the need to create more entrepreneurial societies, and newspapers and television programmes frequently create themes around successful entrepreneurs. But, the pursuit and development of policies related to entrepreneurship are often hampered by the limited, albeit growing, empirical information relating to entrepreneurship (its size, factors and benefits). Therefore, in the absence of definitions that capture the essence of entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurship indicators that are internationally comparable, policy makers are left somewhat rudderless when it comes to developing policies, particularly when they relate to learning from international best-practice. These shortcomings and the growing importance of entrepreneurship in the policy domain have magnified the need for a sounder basis for internationally comparable indicators of entrepreneurship. This paper provides a framework that is intended to provide that sounder basis. It does so by adopting a holistic approach, and, so, by focusing on the: factors that impede or motivate entrepreneurship (determinants); measures that provide indicators of the state of entrepreneurship (entrepreneurial performance); and, outcomes (impacts) of that performance on the economy as a whole. Each of these three themes provides the overarching structure to the framework, using a standardised OECD definition of entrepreneurship, and, within each, we develop a suite of indicators that provide the basis for quantifiable information to be collected in an internationally comparable way for each of these themes.

Keywords: Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurial performance, determinants, impact, Indicators, Framework

JEL Classification: C8, M13

Suggested Citation

Ahmad, Nadim and Hoffmann, Anders, A Framework for Addressing and Measuring Entrepreneurship (January 2008). OECD Statistics Working Paper No. 2, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1090374 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1090374

Nadim Ahmad (Contact Author)

Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) ( email )

2 rue Andre Pascal
Paris Cedex 16, 75775
France

Anders Hoffmann

Government of the Kingdom of Denmark - Danish Enterprise and Construction Authority ( email )

Denmark

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