Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Economic Development, business support, How to start a business.The Business Age and Growth Segmentation (BAGS) framework can help urban business support organizations envision interconnected programs and ecosystems for entrepreneurs.Around the world, many public institutions, private philanthropists, and current and former entrepreneurs are working to build ecosystems that encourage and support new businesses.Various types of business support organizations (BSOs; sometimes labeled entrepreneur support organizations, or ESOs) have a critical role in these ecosystem building efforts.This article shares a simple method to help BSOs share what they know with one another and identify opportunities for collaboration and referrals.It's called the Business Age and Growth Segmentation (BAGS) framework.Our model, based on our work with organizations helping small business owners in Chicago, looks at the age and the growth rate of BSOs' client businesses to identify the types of programs that could have the best results.The model is inspired by previous work, such as Morris and Kuratko (2020(https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/usd/what-do-entrepreneurs-create-9781789900217.html#:~:text=Four%20different%20types%20of%20ventu res,the%20development%20of%20entrepreneurial%20 ecosystems.)(https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/usd/what-do-entrepreneurs-create-9781789900217.html#:~:text=Four%20different%20types%20of%20ventures,the%20 development%20of%20entrepreneurial%20ecosystems .)), that classifies entrepreneurial ventures based on underlying characteristics, including annual growth rate.However, our model goes further because it focuses on urban support organizations, which typically serve earlystage entrepreneurs with limited growth rates.Similar to ecosystems in the natural world, entrepreneurial ecosystems around the world vary greatly, and so do the BSOs that support them.Our work in Chicago, in the US Midwest, showed us the impact that local non-profit BSOs have on the trajectories of diverse small-scale entrepreneurs.We believe that our new BAGS framework can help BSOs in the US and around the world coordinate efforts with one another to support everyday small businesses, while meaningfully differentiating their offerings.BAGS can be useful for those working in strategic roles in BSOs, and in the public, private, and philanthropic positions that support them.
Authors: Maija Renko, Clark McCain
Institution: Aalto University
Language: English
Subfield: Management of Technology and Innovation
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
OpenAlex ID: W4404749698