Public policy interventions aimed at encouraging, supporting and developing small businesses are important for understanding entrepreneurship and small business management. This textbook is the first to provide teachers and students with a resource that gives an overview of how institutional and policy structures interact with small firm start-ups, continuation and succession/failures.

Beginning with a brief introduction to policy processes, the text covers the main policy instruments for entrepreneurial market entry and start-up support, for on-going small business advice and financial support, and succession planning. It particularly focuses on policies that improve the Business Enabling Environment through macroeconomic policy, institutional reform, and deregulation of bureaucratic burdens. Theoretical rigour is complemented by detailed assessments of current policies around the world, including USA, advanced and emerging economies and Policy support from global institutions such as the World Bank and the ILO are included.

Written by a pre-eminent scholar of public policy and entrepreneurship, this textbook provides a concise but thorough introduction to the subject for Master's students internationally. Policy recommendations in the author's conclusion also highlight the book's value to policy-makers as they adapt to the globalized, digital world.

1. Why Does Policy Matter to Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses?  1.1 Introduction 1.2 What are entrepreneurship and small business policies? 1.3 Why is small businesses policy important? 1.4 What are small businesses?  1.5 Definitions in practice: small firms as policy objects  1.6 Contexts for small business policy  1.7 Summary of key points   1.8 Discussion questions and further reading  2. The Case for Policy  2.1 Introduction  2.2 The institutional case - the enabling environment  2.3 The macroeconomic case  2.4 The entrepreneurial case  2.5 Market failures  2.6 Summary of key points  2.7 Discussion questions and further reading  3. Constraints on Policy  3.1 Introduction  3.2 Is there a valid macroeconomic case?  3.3 Do significant market failures occur?  3.4 Is there a demonstrable need?  3.5 Can needs and gaps be met effectively?  3.6 Clientalism and bureaucracy  3.7 Will we ever know if policies are effective?  3.8 Possibilities for targeting  3.9 Summary of key points  3.10 Discussion questions and further reading  4. Policy Institutions and Meta-institutions  4.1 Introduction  4.2 Lessons from business history  4.3 Meta-institutions, and institutional ¿toolkits¿  4.4 Institutions and ¿business enabling environment¿  4.5 Summary of key points   4.6 Discussion questions and further reading  5. Entrepreneurship and Small Business Policy in the USA  5.1 Introduction  5.2 The USA context for policy  5.3 ¿Exceptionalism¿ as the leading entrepreneurial economy?  5.4 Small business policies and the SBA  5.5 Assessment of the SBA  5.6 Summary of key points  5.7 Discussion questions and further reading  6. Britain: Evolution of Policy in the ¿Earliest Industrial Nation¿  6.1 Introduction  6.2 Institutions and firms in the ¿earliest industrial nation¿  6.3 The origins of small business policy  6.4 Modern business and entrepreneurship policy  6.5 Advice services  6.6 Summary of key points   6.7 Discussion questions and further reading  7. East and Southeast Asian ¿Exceptionalism¿: Japan and South Korea  7.1 Introduction  7.2 Underpinnings of East and Southeast Asian success  7.3. East and Southeast Asian ¿exceptionalism¿  7.4 Entrepreneurship and SME policy in Japan   7.5 Entrepreneurship and SME policy in S. Korea  7.6 Summary of key points  7.7 Discussion questions and further reading  8. China  8.1 Introduction  8.2 Chinese economic developments  8.3 The role of SMEs in modern china  8.4 Chinese SME policy  8.5 Summary of key points  8.6 Discussion questions and further reading  9. Developing and Transition Economies  9.1 Introduction  9.2 Changing views of development policy  9.3 Policy challenges in developing countries  9.4 Policy challenges in transition economies  9.5 Policy and capacity building  9.6 Summary of key points  9.7 Discussion questions and further reading  10. Evolution and Revolution: New Opportunities, Old Dangers  10.1 Introduction  10.2 Evolution  10.3 Revolution?  10.4 Summary of key points  10.5 Discussion questions and further reading

'This important book breaks new ground in making the case for the important role that public policy can and does play. The book explains not only why entrepreneurship policy matters but also provides a compelling blueprint for formulating and implementing policies promoting entrepreneurship and small business.'

David B. Audretsch, Professor, Indiana University, USA

'The revival of entrepreneurship since the 1990s is perhaps the biggest and most unexpected change in the industrial structure of the last century. Policy makers were ahead of scholars to discover its pervasiveness and its opportunities. Their public policies have been well meant but highly intuitive, largely based upon nurturing irrespective of the cost, and neglecting specific situations. Bob Bennett's book is the first to unravel the why's and how's of public policy covering many periods and countries. It is a definitive must read for those who want to learn from past policies and prepare future ones.'

Roy Thurik, Professor, Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands

'This highly readable book is the definitive guide to why entrepreneurship is important and the ways in which public policy intervention can assist or impede the small business sector. A model of clarity, this book is recommended reading for students - and should be on the desks of every politician and economic policy advisor.'

Sara Carter, Professor, University of Strathclyde, UK

'Governments throughout the developed world spend huge sums in seeking to make their country more enterprising. It is therefore timely for Professor Robert Bennett, a long-term observer of such policies, to coolly review their effectiveness and provide twelve well-chosen recommendations for improvement.'

David Storey, Professor, School of Business Management and Economics, University of Sussex, UK

'Entrepreneurship, Small Business and Public Policy: Evolution and Revolution, by Robert J. Bennett, bridges the gap between hopeful pronouncements of public policy and the realities of how small business and entrepreneurship programs might affect their intended client bases, and succeeds as a sensible, unruffled examination of a complex topic.'

Christopher L. Atkinson, Florida Atlantic University, Economic Development Quarterly

Robert John Bennett is a leading commentator/international expert on SME policy and economic development, and an investor in small firms. Author of many books and research papers, this text develops from his Masters teaching at the London School of Economics and the University of Cambridge. Currently Research Director and Professor Emeritus at Cambridge, he has held visiting positions in the USA, Australia and Europe, and has been an advisor to Parliamentary Committees and organisations in the public and private sectors.