While we normally think of innovative new businesses being supported to grow through investments by business angels or venture capital firms, it is easy to forget the role that public sector funding can play in boosting the development of entrepreneurial businesses that are bringing new products or services to the market.
Back in 1988, I embarked on my Ph.D at Aston University to study technical entrepreneurship in the UK by examining sixty winners of SMART (Small firms Merit Award for Research and Technology) awards across the UK. This government innovation programme was directed towards the promotion of innovation within small ventures with less than 50 employees and provided vital funding for the development of new businesses at a time when there was almost no significant private sector funding for innovation in the UK.
It was the first study of its type in the UK at a time when entrepreneurs were still considered as peripheral not only in terms of their contribution to the economy but also in respect of their role in developing innovation and disruptive technologies. Certainly, the only place you would find the term unicorns back then was in children’s books or toy shops.
