Abstract
Differences in entrepreneurial activity and entrepreneurial attitude are substantial and persistent across nations and regions. However, studies on entrepreneurship that encompass regions and countries at the same time are lacking. This paper explains both national and regional differences in entrepreneurial attitude and activity for 127 regions in 17 European countries, based on Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) data. We reveal the importance of institutional factors and economic and demographic attributes to variations in regional entrepreneurial attitude and activity. Our findings point at the relevance of distinguishing between components of entrepreneurial attitudes, i.e. fear of failure in starting business, perceptions on start-up opportunities and self-assessment of personal capabilities to start a firm. We find different determinants of these components, suggesting that they reflect different aspects of entrepreneurial attitude. In explaining regional prevalence rates of phases in entrepreneurial activity (nascent, baby business, established business) we find significant contributions of entrepreneurial attitude components. Urban regions and regions with high levels of nearby start-up examples show relatively high rates of early-stage entrepreneurship. A large number of start-up procedures does not discourage early-stage entrepreneurship.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the audience at the ERSA 2007 conference (in Paris) and more in particular Rolf Sternberg, two anonymous referees, and the editor, for their valuable comments. Data for this study were provided by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), which is a consortium of research teams representing more than 60 nations across the globe. Names of the members of national teams, the global coordination team, and the financial sponsors are published in the annual Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Reports, which can be downloaded at http://www.gemconsortium.org. We thank all the researchers and their financial supporters who made this research possible.
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Open Access This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0), which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
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Bosma, N., Schutjens, V. Understanding regional variation in entrepreneurial activity and entrepreneurial attitude in Europe. Ann Reg Sci 47, 711–742 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00168-010-0375-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00168-010-0375-7