State-guided entrepreneurship: A case study

Abstract

The premise that active engagement by the state in business is crucial for small, developing economies for global competitiveness is based on the assumption that the state has the wherewithal to support such competitiveness.

This paper advocates the view that governments of developing economies should be involved in business. While this view goes against the trend of popular and current thinking of the free market economy and a non-interventionist government, it needs to be recognized that such ideals are beyond many struggling, developing economies whose space in the global economy is heavily constricted by the presence of the developed economies.

Using Singapore, more specifically, its government-owned company Temasek Holdings, as a case study, this paper argues that the concept of state-guided entrepreneurship has beenapplied successfully based on the hypothesis offered in this paper.