About
IFEED
Welcome to the Institute for Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Development (IFEED).
IFEED is a think tank in innovation policy. We specialise in research on policy for SMEs and startups and on entrepreneurial ecosystem policy, and in academic cooperation.
We combine the rigour of academic theory with practical insight from the policy field. In a startup environment that changes quickly, this lets us identify the policy agendas that matter and design policy alternatives grounded in evidence.
Our research is centred on the Korean government’s policy for SMEs and startups. We compare and analyse it, broadly, against the innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem policy paradigms of leading economies, including the UK, the US and the European Union, so that the solutions we propose work across national, regional and global markets.
Our work is organised around five core research themes: sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystems; global and transnational ecosystems; digital and AI-driven ecosystems; inclusive and place-based ecosystems; and ecosystem governance and policy diagnostics.
Through academic cooperation, we bring researchers, policymakers and practitioners together at conferences, forums, symposia and exhibitions, and through the IFEED Fellowship.
We will keep our research rigorous, our sources official and our conclusions open to scrutiny. We hope IFEED’s work is useful to everyone who builds, supports and studies SMEs and startups, and we welcome you to take part in it.
Thank you.
Institute for Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Development
Purpose
The Institute for Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Development (IFEED) is a think tank in innovation policy. It specialises in research on policy for SMEs and startups and on entrepreneurial ecosystem policy, and in academic cooperation.
IFEED combines the rigour of academic theory with practical insight from the policy field to identify policy agendas suited to a fast-changing startup environment, and to design evidence-based policy alternatives.
IFEED was founded to set Korean policy for SMEs and startups in an international frame: to analyse it closely, to compare it with the innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem policy paradigms of leading economies such as the UK, the US and the European Union, and to develop advanced policy solutions that cut across national, regional and global markets.
Main Functions
IFEED’s first function is research. We study the policy of the Korean government and the National Assembly for SMEs and startups, and compare it with the innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem policy paradigms of the UK, the US, the European Union and other leading economies. From this research, we identify policy agendas for a fast-changing startup environment and design evidence-based policy alternatives.
Our research is organised around five core themes: sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystems; global and transnational ecosystems; digital and AI-driven ecosystems; inclusive and place-based ecosystems; and ecosystem governance and policy diagnostics. We publish it in four annual policy report series, follow current policy through a weekly Policy Update, and provide data on Korean policy for SMEs and startups for academic use.
Our second function is academic cooperation. We bring researchers, policymakers and practitioners together at conferences, forums, symposia and exhibitions. We recognise researchers and practitioners through the IFEED Fellowship, and we work with partner organisations in Korea and abroad.
Mission
IFEED’s mission is to identify the policy agendas that matter in a fast-changing startup environment, and to design evidence-based policy alternatives for them. We pursue this mission through research on policy for SMEs and startups and on entrepreneurial ecosystem policy, and through academic cooperation.
We do this by combining the rigour of academic theory with practical insight from the policy field. Theory helps us ask the right questions and test the answers against evidence. Practice shows us how policy is designed, how it is delivered and how it is experienced by the SMEs and startups it is meant to serve. Policy alternatives built on only one of the two rarely hold up, so we hold our work to both.
Vision
Our vision is to be a national think tank whose solutions cut across national, regional and global markets.
Entrepreneurial ecosystems are not confined to one level of government or to one country. The growth of SMEs and startups depends on national laws and budgets, on the industries and institutions of the regions where they are based, and on capital, talent and technology that move across borders. Policy designed for one of these levels often misses what happens at the others. We therefore aim for policy solutions that hold together at all three.
Core Values
Four values, drawn from the way we work, guide our research.
The first is rigour. We hold our research to the standards of academic theory: clear questions, sound methods, and conclusions that follow from the evidence and are set out so that others can check them.
The second is practice. Policy is made and carried out in the field, so we draw on the practical insight of the people who design, deliver and use it.
The third is evidence. The policy alternatives we propose rest on empirical and objective evidence, and we read policy from the documents that governments and legislatures publish.
The fourth is comparison. We read Korean policy alongside the policy paradigms of leading economies, because comparison shows what is distinctive in Korea’s approach, what it shares with others, and what each can learn from the other.
Research Scope
Our research is centred on the Korean government’s policy for SMEs and startups. Around this centre, we compare and analyse, broadly, the innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem policy paradigms of leading economies, including the UK, the US and the European Union.
We look at policy at three levels. At national level, we study the policy set by central government and the National Assembly: plans, laws, budgets and announcements, read from the documents they publish. At regional level, we study regional ecosystems and the policy linked to each region’s industries. At global level, we study the startups, capital, talent and technology that move across borders, and the policy that shapes those flows.
From this comparison across countries and levels, we develop advanced policy solutions that cut across national, regional and global markets.
Core Research Themes
Our research is organised around five core themes. Each starts from a change that is reshaping entrepreneurial ecosystems and asks what policy should do in response.
Sustainable Entrepreneurial Ecosystems
In response to global sustainability agendas such as climate tech, the circular economy and the ESG transition, we research systems for growing sustainable startups that create long-term resilience and social and economic value at the same time.
Among the questions we ask: how public finance and support schemes can help climate tech and circular economy startups grow from their early stage to scale; how SMEs can make the ESG transition without losing competitiveness; and how policy can value a startup for its long-term resilience as well as for its growth.
Global and Transnational Ecosystems
We analyse open innovation ecosystem policy that works on the global stage, including the mechanisms by which born-global startups scale up, the inflow of transnational venture capital, and the exchange of talent and technology across borders.
Among the questions we ask: what conditions let a startup be born global rather than turn global late; how inflows of transnational venture capital change a domestic ecosystem; and how national rules help or hinder the movement of founders, talent and technology between countries.
Digital and AI-Driven Ecosystems
We diagnose the structural changes that the arrival of artificial intelligence (AI), deep tech and the platform economy brings to startup formation, investment and incubation systems, and propose data-driven policy for growing the next generation of startups.
Among the questions we ask: how AI and deep tech change what startups need from investors and incubators; how the platform economy changes the position of the SMEs and startups that depend on platforms; and how data can make startup support better targeted and easier to evaluate.
Inclusive and Place-Based Ecosystems
We seek an inclusive startup policy environment in which diverse groups and regions prosper together, through smart specialisation strategies that ease concentration in the capital region and link to each region’s specialised industries.
Among the questions we ask: why startups and investment concentrate in the capital region and what policy can do about it; how smart specialisation can link the startups of each region to the industries already strong there; and how support can reach founders from groups and places that policy has often missed.
Ecosystem Governance and Policy Diagnostics
We test, across several dimensions, the direct and indirect effects of public policy and support schemes on the startup ecosystem as a whole, and propose institutional improvements centred on objective evidence.
Among the questions we ask: whether support schemes reach the firms they are meant for and change what those firms do; what effects policy has beyond its direct recipients, on other firms, investors and regions; and how evidence from evaluation can feed into the design of the next policy.