An experimentally organised economy: The role of Entrepreneurial Experimentation

Important results from the project

The project has consisted of nine different sub-projects and constitutes Phase 1 (of the planned 2) in the research program Entrepreneurial Experimentation. The purpose of the program has been to conceptualize entrepreneurial experimentation as a function of creation, selection and scale-up processes in the economy. This provides an understanding of how entrepreneurial experimentation contributes to long-term development and how policy instruments can promote an entrepreneurship infrastructure that stimulates the experimentally organized economy.

Expected long term effects

The program and its various sub-projects have increased understanding of the central importance of entrepreneurial experimentation. The program has connected different analytical levels in the experimentally organized economy (organizational, individual and societal level), and shown that entrepreneurial experimentation is one of the key functions within and between different systems (e.g. innovation and entrepreneurial systems). Despite this being an ambitious goal, many of the nine sub-projects can report important results in that direction.

Approach and implementation

The sub-projects have combined different methods and focused on the creation, selection and scaling up of processes at three different levels of analysis: *The Experimental Organization: the importance of organizations (public and private), new and established companies, and interaction, in the creation, selection and scaling of innovations. *The Experimental Individual: on competence building and workforce mobility *The Experimental Society: on how the processes are affected and influence the interaction between actors, individuals, organizations and institutions.