Voinovich School professor serves as guest editor for entrepreneurship and public policy journal

Dr. Jason Jolley, professor of rural economic development and director of the Master of Public Administration program at Ohio University’s Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs, recently served as guest editor for a special edition of the Journal of Entrepreneurship and Public Policy. 

Jolley co-edited the issue and co-wrote its guest editorial along with Dr. Luke Pittaway, O'Bleness Professor of Entrepreneurship and associate dean of undergraduate programs for the College of Business. 

The special issue was themed “Entrepreneurial ecosystems and public policy” and focused on entrepreneurial ecosystems in small cities, university towns and sparsely populated rural areas. 

Jolley and Pittaway assembled a team of peer reviewers who selected six papers from a large number of scholarly submissions from the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Denmark and Italy. The papers explored a host of topics, such as crowdfunding, university engagement, rural entrepreneurship and case studies of various public policy interventions.

In their guest editorial, Jolley and Pittaway wrote that the papers they reviewed indicated a mixed picture for the role of public policy in supporting entrepreneurship. 

“In some contexts, public policy has failed to support establishment and maintenance of viable localities, while in other instances it has been critical for offsetting constraints,” said Jolley and Pittaway in the guest editorial. 

That does not mean, they caution, that governments should give up on entrepreneurship programs. 

“Ultimately, all the papers allude to a role for public policy, but see it as a supportive and collaborative one, working with entrepreneurs who themselves ultimately lead the ecosystem and create the critical social networks that are required for ecosystem success,” said Jolley and Pittaway in the guest editorial. 

Jolley further noted that while much has been written about entrepreneurial ecosystems in urban areas, much less scholarly work has focused on rural and underserved communities and regions. 

“The special issue was inspired, in part, by the successful rural entrepreneurial ecosystem Ohio University has helped create in our region,” Jolley said. “We wanted to explore and share what other rural places are doing around the world to support entrepreneurial growth.” 

This issue, Journal of Entrepreneurship and Public Policy 8(3), is available online through OHIO Libraries and in hard copy.