Reviewing and revising the rhetoric of enterprise policy: Going back to basics

This chapter builds on previous arguments concerning the shortcomings of enterprise policy in the UK by evaluating its development in light of a more comprehensive set of issues than have been considered in recent times. These include the nature of formal policy development processes, aims and objectives that are beyond the scope of enterprise policy; the difficulties involved in segmentation and targeting of business support; the constraints engendered by limited resources; tensions between ideologically driven policy and evidence-based policy development; and an ostensibly common failure to engage with the evidence base or to use only particular forms of evidence. This broader exploration of the issues involved in the formulation of enterprise policy provides a more nuanced and powerful understanding of why policy tends to be ineffectual.