European innovation and entrepreneurship strategy: Implications for Turkey

ABSTRACT During the last few decades, the world has been experiencing a socio-economic transform and, knowledge has become the most precious asset for all organizations. This transformation has created many opportunities and threats. In the new dynamic economy, the policy makers in the European Union have made significant progress in generating strategies and action plans for "job creation", "innovation" and "entrepreneurship". According to the findings of the European Commission (2002), between 1988 and 2001, most jobs in Europe were created by micro-enterprises (enterprises having less than 10 employees) whereas large enterprises lost jobs. Innovation and entrepreneurship might be the concepts to drive the economy of the EU, as well as that of Turkey, to the expected levels. The main objective of this thesis is to examine the innovation and entrepreneurship strategies of the European Union, and their implications for Turkey. The method of study will be literature survey and qualitative data analysis. In the last section of the study, findings will be interpreted and future estimations will be given. Keywords: Entrepreneurship, entrepreneur, innovation, knowledge-based economy, knowledge economy, the new economy, European Union, EU innovation strategies... rx