Yet, the governments and universities of a large number of European, Asian and Latin American countries as well as the transition economies of Central and Eastern Europe are designing programs to stimulate new venture development.
Between 2010 and 2015, predicts BCG, China's e-commerce market will more than quadruple, from $71 billion to $305 billion—which could make it the world's largest.Such forecasts have stimulated plenty of venture capital, both foreign and domestic.
Yet, the empirical evidence that the R&D subsidy program stimulated the biotechnology venture firms to expand their new product R&D activities is found to be rather weak.
But a complaint: too many exhibitions of African art are still conceived along simplistic, introductory-level lines, coasting on the reliable allure of charismatic objects rather than venturing fresh, stimulating and possibly challenging ideas.
That bias was tailored to the Bush Administration's interest in using technology to stimulate economic development, says venture capitalist Floyd Kvamme, its co-chair, adding that the decision was a no-brainer.
Because models of investment besides just venture capital can stimulate the economy.
In Colombia, incoming President Juan Manuel Santos has a plan to invest more than $2 billion in communications and information technology sectors, including a $30 million fund to stimulate the development of a local venture capital industry.
The award was announced during the international book fair there, now a joint venture with Frankfurt, aimed at stimulating publishing in the region, with zero tolerance of rampant book piracy.
"We're at the epicenter of being stimulated with digital stuff," Mamoon* Hamid, a venture investor at Social Capital, told me.
At a meeting on Saturday, representatives from the two countries and a handful of foreign business people discussed ways to stimulate investment in business ventures in Iraq.
