Public Authorities for Entrepreneurship: A management approach to execute competitiveness policies

Decentralization, globalization and European Union cohesion and competitiveness agendas have shifted the focus of development policies from the central to the regional and local levels. Most studies on economic development are informed by macroeconomic and entrepreneurial theories, the normative implications of which are unclear for public authorities attempting to enhance competitiveness and entrepreneurship in their communities. This paper discusses the centrality of implementation efforts for the effectiveness of regional and local competitiveness programmes and policies. Striving to capture the challenges posed by the international literature, the paper presents a managerial approach, developed under an inductive-deductive method grounded in some Italian cases of entrepreneurial development. The intention is to provide a reference point for regional and local public managers whose task it is to select and execute actions and instruments to support businesses' start up and growth.