UWI academic says entrepreneurial economy vital for growth

Barbados urgently needs to build out its entrepreneurial economy, academic Pro Vice Chancellor for Undergraduate Studies at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Professor Justin Robinson has suggested.

With the economy at a standstill, he said, an entrepreneurial economy is a new catalyst for growth that would move the country to another level and protect the gains that have already been made.

However, according to statistics, said Professor Robinson, the environment for fostering entrepreneurial activities in Barbados is not world-class. He went so far as to say that the country is “punching below its weight”.

“Barbados is in need of that economic invigoration and I see the building out of the entrepreneurial economy as critical to providing that invigoration to maintain the historical gains and address emerging challenges and opportunity. 

“The entrepreneurial economy requires us to move beyond needs-based replicate entrepreneurship to include opportunity and innovation-based entrepreneurship that is founded on our strong human capital, economic policy credibility and a supportive regulatory regime fostering the full spectrum of the entrepreneurial ecosystem,” he said as he delivered the featured address at Thursday’s Small Business Association (SBA) webinar, Making of an Entrepreneurial Economy, part of Global Entrepreneurship Week.

Indicating that building an entrepreneurial economy is a challenging undertaking, Robinson said that tolerance for disruption is also necessary.

“Because disruption – a changing of the guard, new entities emerging at the expense of old entities – is often a critical feature of an entrepreneurial economy. And if there is limited tolerance for that in the economy, that in itself is a constraint because entrepreneurs are going to run into that barrier. 

“And, somewhat worse, if there is in fact this influential group within the society who do very well in the status quo and are able to use their influence to really maintain the status quo then we are going to have a major challenge in building out an entrepreneurial economy. An entrepreneurial economy requires a policy environment that is good for business as distinct from one that is good for some business persons,” he said.

The academic noted that the country must also focus on establishing macroeconomic stability and policy credibility, addressing market size constraints, having an enabling business environment, and digitising the economy.

He added that an enabling environment that allows entrepreneurs to thrive is another critical pillar since it is impossible to build an entrepreneurial economy if stakeholders are frustrated with the length of time it takes to register new businesses even as they face other challenges.

Chief Executive Officer of the SBA Dr Lynette Holder, also speaking at the forum, agreed that if Barbados does not move with alacrity and urgency in rolling out an entrepreneurial economy, it will be left behind. 

Referring to Professor Robinson’s presentation that chronicled the development of several countries from 1981 to 2021, she said: “When we . . . saw that Barbados was literally at the bottom of this list and would have performed poorly during that period compared to the other Small Island Developing States, I don’t think that you can want a better set of information to really stimulate your thinking or to stimulate your action that now is the time.” (AH)