How Can Communities use Effectuation to optimise Local Economic Growth within existing levels of Government Support?

Coming from a small fishing village in County Waterford and a family of entrepreneurs I have seen how local people struggle to create and find job opportunities, particularly in a time of recession. Bunmahon, County Waterford... [ view full abstract ]

Coming from a small fishing village in County Waterford and a family of entrepreneurs I have seen how local people struggle to create and find job opportunities, particularly in a time of recession. Bunmahon, County Waterford is a small village by sea, which during the seasonal summer months flourishes as a result of tourism from the cities and bigger towns. Then, come the dark winter months the vacant holiday homes and closed shop doors leave people looking to relocate to the bigger cities for jobs. However, not all people can or want to take this option some stay and struggle to create a living for themselves while others are left dependant on government aid. An Taoiseach said: “While recovery is underway we cannot let it bypass families or communities on the basis of their location. Irish Recovery is for all of Ireland” (Action Plan for Jobs- Regional, 2015). For my family, those who stayed used the means available to them to generate an income by starting a fishing export business, become an author, opening a restaurant and other businesses. Although this is not the case for everyone, job-creation in rural Ireland continues to be a struggle. Which brings me to my question: Can regional economic growth be developed solely through government policy or does it also require a significant amount of self –help at a local or regional level?

The aim of this research is to explore how local communities can increase entrepreneurial activity and achieve sustainable development and to create a model for development from a grassroots level, and from an Effectuation perspective. This research will explore the micro factors which enable entrepreneurial activity and evaluate the effectiveness and relativeness of entrepreneurial policy in reducing barriers to entrepreneurship from a regional growth perspective. The challenge within this research is to understand which model would best suit local development and if Effectuation would be a suitable approach towards developing such a model. The output will be to deliver a self-help model for local development that can applied in rural or peripheral communities. If successful this model would cultivate entrepreneurial activity across the country and bridge the rural and urban divides.
However, if this vision is to be achieved it requires the expansion of preconceived conceptions of traditional entrepreneurship and economic development. Max-Neef (1981) challenges economists to think beyond their nice offices and GDP. In references to economists lack of understanding of disadvantaged areas he states;
“The point is, you know that economists study and analyze poverty in their nice offices, have all the statistics, make all the models, and are convinced that they know everything that you can know about poverty. But they don’t understand poverty. And that’s the big problem. And that’s why poverty is still there.” (Max-Neef, 2010).
Max-Neef challenges academics to practice what they know and understand about the environment that they are studying. He expresses with his statement:
“What was that knowledge for? What did we do with it? And the point is that knowledge alone is not enough, that we lack understanding” (Max-Neef, 2010).
Apply this to the urban and rural divide in Ireland and it could be suggested that ‘top down’ policies created from an office alone will not suffice. If alternative approaches are to be explored there needs to be an understanding of the environment and of the problem to be addressed. In order to establish what needs to be taught one needs to understand who is being thought. Imas and Weston (2012) continue to expand on Max Neef (1981) with their work ‘barefoot entrepreneurs’. The term ‘barefoot entrepreneur’ describes the entrepreneurial practices and narratives of individuals who live primarily in marginal, poor and excluded places and contexts. The ‘barefoot entrepreneur’ draws on the need for better explanations of entrepreneurial practices and once more raises the question “Who is the entrepreneur?” (Gartner, 1988). Consider, if an individual’s experiences do not amount to a successful business or they do not bear strong entrepreneurial characteristics, but they do reflect distinctively different and no less valuable experiences and stories that can relate to a general understanding of entrepreneurship (Imas & Weston, 2012). This challenges individual’s thoughts of inclusion. Is the given economic system inclusive? And does the entrepreneurial ecosystem bear relevance to marginal or peripheral entrepreneurs?

Entrepreneurship, local development, business, Effectuation, self-help, rural Ireland, job creation, community development, [ view full abstract ]

Entrepreneurship, local development, business, Effectuation, self-help, rural Ireland, job creation, community development,