Effectiveness factors of voucher programmes

Successful entrepreneurs contribute to employment, innovation and economic growth. Most countries recognise the importance of successful entrepreneurship and encourage the emergence of new and growth of already active enterprises. Voucher programmes represent mechanisms of financial support for entrepreneurs providing access to counselling, new knowledge development and training. This article presents the dilemmas concerning voucher programmes which may cause their ineffectiveness and a lack of expected impacts on entrepreneurship. These dilemmas appear to arise from the heterogeneity of programme beneficiaries, their varying interests and limited resources which the countries earmark for subventions. In the article, we recognise three orientations which might lead to better effectiveness of voucher programme – focus of voucher programme, high contact quality between the programme and its beneficiaries and voucher programme stability.