The Support Paradox in Community Enterprise Experiments in the Netherlands

21 Pages Posted: 18 Jan 2016

See all articles by Reinout Kleinhans

Reinout Kleinhans

Delft University of Technology

Maarten van Ham

Delft University of Technology - OTB Research Institute for Housing, Urban and Mobility Studies; University of St. Andrews; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Abstract

In many European countries, community entrepreneurship is increasingly considered as a means to initiate small-scale urban regeneration. However, residents in deprived communities are often viewed to lack key entrepreneurial attributes and skills. This paper reports a unique experiment in the Netherlands with nascent community enterprises which received start-up support from a private foundation. This paper investigates how active citizens perceive the benefits and drawbacks of this support. In depth analysis of transcriptions of repeated semi-structured interviews (panel design with the same respondents) with representatives of established community enterprises and resident groups were analysed. While we find positive feedback on provided support, our research provides strong evidence for a 'support paradox': the support that was intended to overcome a number of entry barriers and difficulties on the road to community entrepreneurship has in fact significantly hampered progress among several of the studied CEs.

Keywords: community enterprises, community entrepreneurship, active citizenship, support, urban regeneration, self-organisation, The Netherlands

JEL Classification: D71, L26, L31, O35, R23

Suggested Citation

Kleinhans, Reinout and van Ham, Maarten and van Ham, Maarten, The Support Paradox in Community Enterprise Experiments in the Netherlands. IZA Discussion Paper No. 9625, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2716426 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2716426

Reinout Kleinhans (Contact Author)

Delft University of Technology ( email )

Maarten Van Ham

University of St. Andrews ( email )

North St
Saint Andrews, Fife KY16 9AJ
United Kingdom

Delft University of Technology - OTB Research Institute for Housing, Urban and Mobility Studies ( email )

P.O. Box 5043
2600 GA Delft
Netherlands
+31 15 278 2782 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.maartenvanham.nl

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
53
Abstract Views
372
Rank
622,184
PlumX Metrics