entrepreneurship

While startups consistently create more jobs than older firms, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis took a look at the trends in startup’s share of jobs and found that startup employment share has been declining for more than a decade. The Fed story provides an overview of startup employment dynamics between 1994 and 2018. While it found that the construction industry and leisure and hospitality industry contributed to the decline more than did the rest of the economy, the story calls for future research into the reasons behind the decline. Specifically, it notes that questions both about a decline in startups and about a change in employment dynamics among aging firms should be explored.

Leveraging new data from the Census Bureau, the Kauffman Foundation recently released the second part of its new Indicators of Entrepreneurship series. This report focuses on the foundation’s New Employer Business indicators — a subset of the Early-State Entrepreneurship indicators provided in Kauffman’s first report of the series in September 2019 — meant to illuminate trends in the emergence of new businesses with employees and the time it takes for these companies to make their first payroll. The series replaces the Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurship series.

A recent survey of millennials by professional services firm Ernst and Young (EY) provides insights into how the generation is aging — and bucking some long-held assumptions. Evaluating the generation’s trends in living arrangements, lifestyle and career preferences, financial health, and social perspectives, EY found that some of the assumptions about millennials are not holding.

What holds people back from starting a business? How does lifting financial constraints help promote entrepreneurship? A recent article by Vyacheslav Mikhed of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia Consumer Finance Institute,  Sahil Raina of the University of Alberta, and Barry Scholnick of University of Alberta and Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia Consumer Finance Institute, explores these questions, and how lifting these economic constraints affected entrepreneurial and self-employed business ventures in Canada from 2002-2016. By comparing lottery winnings to new business endeavors, they found that entrepreneurs face greater financial constraint when starting a business than those who are self-employed.

A recent report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) focuses on increasing participation in entrepreneurship from underrepresented and disadvantaged groups such as women, immigrants, youth, seniors, the unemployed, and people with disabilities. The Missing Entrepreneurs 2019 report notes that addressing market and institutional failures that prevent equal opportunities in entrepreneurship “is an important requirement for achieving a new type of growth that is more inclusive, sustainable and people-centered.” The report recommends policies to increase opportunities for these groups, such as including entrepreneurship models in science-based programs in higher education to increase awareness about the potential of entrepreneurship for students, especially young women.

Entrepreneurial support and capital access remain key concerns for regional innovation economies, as evidenced by the abundance of new activity in 2019. From accelerators, many of which are sector-specific, to seed funds, we highlight 26 of the most interesting developments from the past year. This is the latest in our series of articles highlighting innovation system activities in states across the country in 2019. Our previous coverage included stories on new university incubators, accelerators and funds launched in 2019; research universities and their partnerships with industry; higher education and commercialization programs; free tuition offerings; climate change; clean energy; and broadband.

A new report from the Kansas City Federal Reserve and Opportunity HUB (OHUB) reveals the importance of building an inclusive entrepreneurship ecosystem. Authored by Dell Gines of the Kansas City Federal Reserve and Rodney Sampson, chairman and chief executive officer of Opportunity Hub, the report examines how entrepreneurship ecosystem building has lacked an emphasis on issues of diversity, equity and inclusion. The guide provides an overview of key concepts and gives general recommendations on how to use entrepreneurship ecosystem building to develop high-growth entrepreneurship in communities of color.

Too many communities continue to focus on business attraction in lieu of entrepreneurial support, according to the Kauffman Foundation leadership in their 10^th annual State of Entrepreneurship Address. To increase the focus on entrepreneurs, the foundation indicated it plans to help 200 communities across the country, and 200,000 entrepreneurs in these communities over the next five years, with an emphasis on the middle of country and underrepresented populations, but it did not provide specific details on how it would provide that assistance. As part of the effort, Kauffman also released a checklist highlighting barriers and breakthroughs in entrepreneurship, as well as ways individuals can help grow more inclusive and innovative local economies. In the week leading up to the address, Kauffman also introduced four indicators at the national, state, and metropolitan levels as part of its new approach to tracking early-stage entrepreneurship.

Fighting stereotypes, finding capital and scaling up are just some of the techniques outlined in a new playbook designed to bring more women in entrepreneurship roles and revitalize the U.S. economy. Elevating Women in Entrepreneurship, by Erika R. Smith and Brita Belli, published by the International Business Innovation Association (InBIA), is a playbook outlining common misconceptions surrounding women in entrepreneurship and a practical guide on overcoming obstacles and building on best practices.

The share of the nation’s economy stemming from small businesses — “the lifeblood of the U.S. economy” — has waned since 1998, according to a new report by Kathryn Kobe and Richard Schwinn on behalf of the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy. Despite overall growth in small business GDP, the number of small businesses and their employment levels have not yet recovered from their pre-recession value. At the same time, the numbers of large businesses and large business employees have grown continuously, and large business GDP makes up an increasing share of the national pie.