Entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship and SMEs in developing economies: How subverting terminology sustains flawed policy

Facilitating the emergence of a vibrant small and medium sized enterprise (SME) sector is promoted as the new development prescription for low-income countries. Academic analysis of entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship and SME sector development is characterised, though, by a lack of precision and consistency over the core terms employed. This is highly problematic. It allows obfuscation to trump insight and thus makes it extremely difficult to judge the veracity of the development prescription that is advocated or to undertake any objective assessment of the effectiveness of strategies that have been implemented. Policymakers are consequently faced with having to initiate measures that constitute little more than leaps of faith based on unproven claims and an inconsistent discourse and are therefore exposed to being influenced by a broad array of vested interests, be they vendors of microcredit, management consultants, NGOs or economists of various persuasions. This paper argues for a much-needed consistency with respect to the key terms entrepreneur, entrepreneurship and SME.