New job creators also play an outsized role in the development of innovative new products and services that can revolutionize industries and transform entire sectors of our economy. Research shows that innovation has been responsible for approximately two-thirds of our country’s economic growth since World War II.
Empowering these businesses, and embracing an inclusive view of entrepreneurship, is essential to our long-term economic growth and global competitiveness. We need more people across the country to start the types of businesses that make our economy more competitive and our industries more innovative. That’s why we’re making strategic investments that focus on increasing access to capital for high-growth businesses, strengthening entrepreneurial skills training and building regional entrepreneurial ecosystems (through clusters and growth accelerators).
We must also make the necessary investments in STEM fields so that we can have a workforce with the skills and expertise to compete and win in an increasingly competitive global economy.
By making these investments, we will build on our nation’s economic recovery, inject new energy and momentum into our economy, bolster new business starts and leverage the greatest driver of innovation and job creation in the world—the American entrepreneur.
— an excerpt from Karen Mills, Forbes
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America21 defines The Innovation Economy as the period in the late 20th and early 21st centuries marked by radical socioeconomic changes brought about by the following:
[alert color=yellow align=center] Further globalization of commerce ; democratization of information ; exponential growth of entrepreneurship, and ; acceleration of new knowledge creation [/alert]
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Inclusive Competitiveness is girded by three pillars:
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- Education, specifically STEM (science, technology, engineering, math)
- Entrepreneurship, especially high-growth
- Access to Capital, capital formation and investment (including equity, debt and credit)
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[slideshare id=26629994&doc=inclusivecompetitivenessglossayofterms-130927152238-phpapp02]
