Abstract
Entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship have always been highlighted for overall development. This chapter aims to understand the entrepreneurs' multi-perspective approach as a catalyst for regional development in India. It reviews SMEs' policies and multi-perspective approach adopted by the auto component sector/cluster for regional growth by including a broader range of human resource and leadership-related aspects than is normally found in the SME and entrepreneurship literature. The methodology adopted is exploratory study with the open-ended approach of grounded theory, complemented by secondary data analysis with a focus on entrepreneurs of a particular sector/cluster and limited to Pune region development. The findings hope to provide insights on a multi-perspective approach and suggest that successful entrepreneurial firms that operate as clusters create entrepreneurial leaders who then act as “integrating forces” on two levels: integrating the elements of entrepreneurship and mediating between the regional development and entrepreneurship development.
TopBackground
Regions have gained a position at the forefront of the economic development policy agenda. However, the regional approach to economic strategy remains contested, though many have used enterprise development as a tool for improving regional competitiveness. This paper finds that entrepreneurship policy at the regional level is multidimensional, with policies broadly ranging from those that are either economically or socially driven. Although there is a considerable policy activity in these areas across less competitive regions, enterprise policy-making remains relatively undifferentiated across the regions. There are several evolutions in regional policy occurring, especially a shift from policies relating to the facilitation of clusters to those focused on developing regional innovation ecosystems. It is found that regional policymakers are under pressure to measure short-term outputs at the expense of long-term nurturing.
A decentralized regional political base can allow for differentiation in regional economic policies, including entrepreneurship (Baporikar, 2017c). In a normative sense, the policy should seek to encourage diversity and experimentation across regions (Gibb, 1993). However, and despite national government putting regions and regionalism at the forefront of the policy agenda (Gibbs, 1998; Pearce & Ayres, 2009), the regional approach to economic strategy remains contested, and has been criticized as lacking vision and cohesion between policy areas, and failing to identify truly regional issues, with regional planning guidance tending to replicate national policy rather than translating it into a regional context, leading to a lack of regional distinctiveness (Hull, 2000; Tewdwr-Jones, & Phelps 2000; Charles & Benneworth, 2001; Peck & McGuinness, 2003). Others state that regional agencies, despite billions of pounds of investment, lack sufficient resources to make a significant impact on economic disparities within regions (Pearce & Ayres, 2009).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Innovation: Something new or different introduced, it is the act of innovating which includes introduction of new things or methods. Innovation is also introduction of a new idea into the marketplace in the form of a new product or service, or an improvement in organization or process. The process of translating an idea or invention into a good or service that creates value or for which customers will pay.
Perspective: Is a way of regarding situations, facts or topics or a mental view or the state of one’s ideas; prospective means concerned with or related to the future and judging their relative importance. It includes the proper or accurate point of view or the ability to see with objectivity so as to try to get some perspective on issues for better solutions.
Process: A systematic series of actions directed to some end, it is a continuous action, operation, or series of changes taking place in a definite manner. A natural phenomenon marked by gradual changes that lead toward a particular result, a natural progressively continuing operation or development marked by a series of gradual changes that succeed one another in a relatively fixed way and lead toward a particular result or end. A process is thus a series of progressive and interdependent steps by which an end is attained.
Competitiveness: Act of competing for some honor, or advantage. Rivalry between two or more persons or groups for an object desired in common, usually resulting in a victor and a loser but not necessarily involving the destruction of the latter. The need for global competitiveness is much important for any industry to sustain in this competitive world.
Organization: A group of persons organized for some end or work; an organized structure or whole for a business or administrative concern united and constructed for a particular end or a body of administrative officials, as of a political party, a government department, etc. It is act or process of organizing; a structure through which individuals cooperate systematically to conduct business and/or the administrative personnel of such a structure.
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs): is a term for segmenting businesses and other organizations that are somewhere between the “small office-home office” size and the larger enterprise. Country to country this term may vary, but it is usually based on the criteria of investment, number of employees and turnover, etc.
Entrepreneurship: The capacity and willingness to develop organize and manage a business venture along with any of its risks in order to make a profit. The most obvious example of entrepreneurship is the starting of new businesses.
Globalization: Globalization is the tendency of businesses, technologies, or philosophies to spread throughout the world, or the process of making this happen. Worldwide integration and development, the process enabling financial and investment markets to operate internationally, largely as a result of deregulation and improved communications.
Strategy: The science and art of employing, a careful plan or method, the art of devising or employing plans or stratagems toward a goal, an adaptation or complex of adaptations (as of behavior, metabolism, or structure) that serves or appears to serve an important function in achieving evolutionary success. It is methods or plans chosen to bring about a desired future, achievement of a goal or solution to a problem.