Entrepreneurship at Country Level. Economic and Non-Economic Determinants Defended on Friday, 15 September 2006

Occupational entrepreneurship refers to individuals owning and managing a business for their own account and risk. This book investigates the rate of occupational entrepreneurship at country level, either measured by the number of business owners as a percentage of the labor force, or by some metric of the dynamics of entrepreneurship such as 'nascent entrepreneurship' and business start-ups. The rate of entrepreneurship differs widely across countries and over time. It is important to know more about the causes of this variety. An exploration of the field through historical case studies sets the stage for a multidisciplinary framework for explaining the rate of entrepreneurship. Based upon several strands of literature, this framework is built around an occupational choice model while linking the individual, the firm and the aggregate level. Technological, economic, demographic, cultural and institutional factors act as entrepreneurial framework conditions. In addition, feedback mechanisms are elaborated. Empirical investigations carried out against the background of this framework show how various demographic, social, cultural and institutional characteristics affect the rate of entrepreneurship. In addition, either a negative or a U-shaped influence of the level of economic development is found, while dummy variables for recent decades suggest a positive impact of global trends such as the ICT revolution, deregulation and the onset of a ‘network economy’.

Keywords

Entrepreneurship, Business Ownership, Nascent Entrepreneurship, Business Start-Ups, Economic Development, Culture, Institutions, Demography, Comparative Analysis of Economies, Economic History


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