An organizational taxonomy of entrepreneurship policy delivery structures

Purpose – Organizing entrepreneurship policy efforts is not an easy task. There are often several different actors involved, and their efforts towards improving conditions for entrepreneurs may be more or less organized. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the organizational archetypes of local entrepreneurship policy, across a number of factors relating to coordination mechanisms and outsourcing. Design/methodology/approach – The study is based on a survey of 77 Danish municipalities, covering 79 per cent of the total population, and their entrepreneurship policy structures. A two-step cluster analysis has been performed to identify taxonomies of entrepreneurship policy organizations. Findings – The findings reveal four different clusters: arm’s length coordination; arm’s length decoupling; internal centralization; and arm’s length centralization. Moreover the study reveals a link between these archetypes and the effectiveness of the local entrepreneurship policy delivery structure, suggesting that some structures may be more effective than other. Originality/value – The paper shifts the focus from policy formulation to organization, showing the importance of organizational structure for better performance. Specifically, the paper illustrates how lack of reaction to the environment leads to underperformance. Moreover, the paper draws the attention towards these new taxonomies, which are of value not only to academia but also to the political world.