Entrepreneurship is one of the driving forces of the modern global economy. It is a primary source of job creation, prosperity, and economic competitiveness. But although the effects of entrepreneurship on economic progress are widely recognized, there is little understanding of how best to promote it. Many policy measures are available but there is no agreement about which are most effective. As a result, many governments at the national, regional, and local levels are attempting to foster entrepreneurship in unproductive and uncoordinated ways, doing too many things at once or resorting to generic rather than locally meaningful plans.

There is no one way to foster entrepreneurship: it requires practical, targeted strategies, based on an understanding of the specific conditions faced by entrepreneurs in a particular area or region. Drawing on decades of experience advising governments on economic competitiveness, Monitor Group has studied and identified the crucial factors that encourage or impede entrepreneurship throughout the world. This report provides policymakers with better tools to assess the state of the entrepreneurial environment in their region, and with better strategies to improve it.