Placing the Dutch Entrepreneurship Paradox

The rise of self-employment

and its implications for the neighbourhood

Erik Stam & Vareska van de Vrande

ESRC Seminar Entrepreneurial Neighbourhoods

Delft University of Technology, Delft, 9-10 September, 2015

Placing the Dutch Entrepreneurship Paradox

Self-employment rates, 1890-1970

Sources: Steinmetz & Wright 1989; Wennekers 2006

0,00

0,05

0,10

0,15

0,20

0,25

0,30

0,35

0,40

1890 1910 1930 1950 1970

Netherlands

Germany

US

NL employment 5 largest multinationals, 1985-2012 (-74%)

0

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

60000

70000

80000

1985 1997 2003 2007 2012

Philips DSM AKZO Shell Unilever

Decline managerial economy, rise entrepeneurial economy

Flexibilization of work

Dutch Entrepeneurship Paradox

• …a rise in entrepreneurship that did not lead to a similar rise innovation. – 150,000 entrepreneurial poor…

• More a transition in labour organization (flexibilization of work) than industrial organization (entrepreneurial economy)

• Implications for the spatial organization of entrepreneurship?

Placing the Dutch Entrepreneurship Paradox

Problematizing the Dutch Entrepreneurship Paradox

Entrepreneurial Poor

Lack of innovation

Loneliness

Co-workers Seats2Meet

Occupational status Industries

95% higher educated (HBO, WO)

Co-workers Seats2Meet

Visits

• 62% at least once a week

• 78% >4 hrs per day

• 93% commutes less than 20 minutes (29% even less than 10 minutes)

• 49% by bike, 25% by train

Motivations (5-7)

• Meet customers: 52.0%

• Meet colleagues: 61.7%

• Meet new people: 84.1%

Placing the Dutch Entrepreneurship Paradox

Erik Stam & Vareska van de Vrande

ESRC Seminar Entrepreneurial Neighbourhoods

Delft University of Technology, Delft, 9-10 September, 2015