Quantifying the relationship between entrepreneurship and competitiveness development stages in Latin America

This research aims to quantify the importance of a country??s entrepreneurship level in terms of its competitiveness rates. Our hypothesis is that those countries entrepreneurship growth rates increase their competitiveness indicators and that this entrepreneurial improvement could be a key factor in reaching the next stage of development. We establish this relationship using a longitudinal database of Latin American countries that participated in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) and the Global Competitiveness Reports of the World Economic Forum (WEF) from 2001 to 2006. GEM and WEF construct aggregated indexes using several variables to rate each country??s entrepreneurship activity and competitiveness development. We use a discriminant analysis to identify various countries?? competitiveness subgroups and show how each country??s entrepreneurship rates have weight in different stages of competitiveness, placing a special emphasis on Latin America. Our results suggest that Latin American countries need to gain entrepreneurial dynamics and economic (and competitiveness) development by transforming their typical self-employment or low value-added new ventures for local markets into strong, innovative networked firms competing globally. Some management and policy implications are also discussed.     

Ethnic group size,linguistic isolation,and immigrant entrepreneurship in the USA

Using a sample of immigrant men in US census data from the early and late 1900s and available in the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS), this study explores: (1) whether immigrant entrepreneurship is positively affected by ethnic group size and linguistic isolation; (2) how sensitive these relationships are to English-language proficiency; and (3) if these relationships have remained stable over time. The empirical results indicate that the size of the local ethnic population does not enhance immigrant self-employment for either English-proficient or limited-English-proficient (LEP) men in the USA. In addition, while linguistic isolation in the local labour pool seems to promote entrepreneurship among English-fluent immigrants in certain cases, it appears to hinder business formation among the LEP. Finally, comparing the results across time-periods is consistent with the premise that rising xenophobia pushes a disproportionate share of the LEP into self-employment.     

‘Recession push’ and ‘prosperity pull’ entrepreneurship in a rural developing context

In this paper, the ‘recession push’ and the ‘prosperity pull’ hypotheses are used to analyse the effect of growing non-farm wage employment on entrepreneurship in a rural developing context. Data are collected in a rural household survey in 110 communes in central Vietnam which includes subjective owner assessments of reasons for starting non-farm businesses. This way it is possible to separately test the two hypotheses by distinguishing opportunity and necessity entrepreneurs. We use clustered probit regression analyses and control for possible endogeneity in order to predict participation in entrepreneurship. The results show that better access to non-farm wage employment increases the likelihood of becoming an opportunity entrepreneur but has no effect on necessity entrepreneurship. This, therefore, supports the ‘prosperity pull’ hypothesis but not the ‘recession push’ hypothesis. The growing non-farm economy is likely to accelerate the emergence of opportunity entrepreneurship in rural areas. However, necessity entrepreneurs are suffering from a lack of individual and household assets which pushes them into entrepreneurship regardless of non-farm job opportunities in the surrounding area.     

Promoting the informal sector as a source of gainful employment in developing countries: insights from Ghana

Although the informal sector continues to be the main source of employment in developing countries, little empirical research has been conducted into the human resource management (HRM) issues surrounding this sector in sub-Saharan Africa. Against this background, this study seeks to highlight the HRM issues, such as training and employment strategy, which are assuming increasing importance in the informal sector in developing countries. After reviewing the marginalist and structuralist debates on the informal sector, the paper looks at the Ghanaian government's attempt to transform the sector into a source of national economic development, entrepreneurship and self-employment. As part of this examination, the paper explores the question of whether the government's strategies can provide jobs for all who need them.

Based on the evidence of the empirical research, the paper argues that although the current Ghanaian government's informal employment strategy is a product of political expediency and, therefore, prone to pitfalls, it nevertheless constitutes a worthwhile attempt to combat unemployment in the long term. The paper also contends that in environments of perpetual economic crisis, which undermine the ability of sub-Saharan African (SSA) governments to generate adequate growth, it makes good socio-economic sense to promote the informal sector as a significant source of employment. The government's strategy should, therefore, be seen as an attempt to help the informal sector generate a level of employment above the marginal and survival. In this respect, the Ghanaian experience provides useful lessons for other SSA countries grappling with similar unemployment problems.     

Influences on students attitudes toward entrepreneurship: A multi-country study

Entrepreneurship has been emphasized in many countries as a way of boosting economic growth and job creation. As entrepreneurship is becoming popular around the world, its education should be customized according to each country’s unique cultural context. The purpose of this paper is to identify differences among the selected nations in terms of factors that are important to enhance the pedagogical effect of entrepreneurship education. This is an empirical study based on the data collected from university students in the US, Korea, China and Fiji representing nations with significantly different cultural contexts. The results imply that customized approaches based on unique cultural context are needed for effective entrepreneurship education in each country.     

EDUCATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP SELECTION AND PERFORMANCE: A REVIEW OF THE EMPIRICAL LITERATURE

Abstract This paper provides a review of empirical studies into the impact of formal schooling on entrepreneurship selection and performance in industrial countries. We describe the main effects found in the literature, we explain the variance in results across almost a hundred studies, and we put the empirical results in the context of related economic theory and the much further developed literature in labor economics (studying the rate of return to education among wage employees). Five main conclusions result from this meta‐analysis. First, the impact of education on selection into entrepreneurship is insignificant. Second, the effect of education on performance is positive and significant. Third, the return to a marginal year of schooling is 6.1% for an entrepreneur. Fourth, the effect of education on earnings is smaller for entrepreneurs than for employees in Europe, but larger in the USA. Fifth, the returns to schooling in entrepreneurship are higher in the USA than in Europe, higher for females than for males, and lower for non‐whites or immigrants. In conclusion, we offer a number of suggestions to move the research frontier in this area of inquiry. The entrepreneurship literature on education can benefit from the technical sophistication used to estimate the returns to schooling for employees.     

Empirical Studies of Self‐Employment

This paper presents a review of empirical studies of self‐employment for the Australian, Canadian, Dutch, UK and US labour markets. Both cross‐sectional and longitudinal studies are analysed. Analyses using cross‐sectional data examine the propensity to be self‐employed at any one point in time, whereas longitudinal studies focus on the transition into self‐employment from wage/salary employment and the survival rate in this state over time. Various hypotheses advanced in the economics and sociology literatures on self‐employment are tested. These include the relationship between managerial ability and the propensity to be self‐employed and the impact of financial constraints on entry into self‐employment stressed in economic models of entrepreneurship, and the relationships between self‐employment choice and the nature of the work and group characteristics (e.g., ethnic enclaves) stressed in sociological models of entrepreneurship. The evidence shows that self‐employment outcomes are significantly affected by factors such as individual abilities, family background, occupational status, liquidity constraints and ethnic enclaves.     

The ‘recession-push’ hypothesis reconsidered

The relationship between unemployment and self-employment has been studied extensively. Due to its complex, multifaceted nature, various scholars have found a large array of different results, so that the exact nature of the relation is still not clear. An important element of the relation is captured by the recession-push hypothesis which states that in times of high unemployment individuals are pushed into self-employment for lack of alternative sources of income such as paid employment. We make two contributions to this literature. First, we argue that official unemployment rates may not capture the ??true?? rate of unemployment as it does not include ??hidden?? unemployed who are out of the labour force. Therefore, we propose a new method where the ??recession-push?? effect relates not only to the (official) unemployed but also to the inactive population. Second, we argue that the magnitude of the recession-push effect is non-linear in the business cycle, i.e. the effect is disproportionally stronger when economic circumstances are worse. We provide empirical support for our hypotheses by estimating an econometric model on Spanish data.     

Self-employment and business cycle persistence: Does the composition of employment matter for economic recoveries?

Self-employment comprises an important share of employment in many countries, and tends to expand during downturns through higher inflows from unemployment. Furthermore, countries with higher self-employment shares exhibit lower cyclical output persistence. I build a business cycle model with frictional labor markets where individuals can be self-employed or salaried employed. I show that economies with larger self-employment shares exhibit faster economic recoveries. Differences in the ease of entry into self-employment as the economy recovers explain the contrasting cyclical dynamics. The model successfully captures the cyclical patterns of self-employment and the relationship between self-employment and output persistence in the data.     

Performative entrepreneurship: identity,behaviour and place in adventure sports Enterprise

This research explores entrepreneurial identity and place in adventure sports within the emerging field of sports entrepreneurship. A growing body of literature has established the broad parameters of sports entrepreneurs mainly within the fitness sector. This study applies a performative entrepreneurship lens to explore the embedded nature of identity, behaviour and place amongst mountain bike (MTB) trainers and guides. This qualitative study is based around interviews with six trainers/guides conducted via online forums as well as participatory observations made on a group ride and of a communal response to the natural environment through trail building. Findings illustrate that unlike the fitness sector where there is a more established market and where entrepreneurs often move from employment to self-employment within the sector, the MTB adventure sports entrepreneur operates in a less formalised market resulting in less formal strategic planning. ‘Place’ is an important factor in the performative nature of enterprise in this study and it is clear that it is through lifestyle entrepreneurship that the individuals are ‘performing’ identity.

     

Entrepreneurship in Extreme Environments: Building an Expanded Model

Interview and economic data from Kosovo are used to expand previous models of entrepreneurial factors and processes. Developing and building this expanded model in a conflict plagued, extreme environment calls attention to the complex role of policy makers in allocating resources and rewards, and demonstrates the importance of recipients using available resources wisely. Entrepreneurial activity was encouraged to create economic vitality in this war-torn region; however an absence of economic momentum (energy from the combination of mass and velocity), resource dormancy, and social irresponsibility present daunting barriers. Constrained into self-employment, entrepreneurs lack provisions and the ability to generate effective economic activity. While entrepreneurship was intended to replace antiquated, inefficient production systems, evidence indicates that foreign enterprises are more capable of satisfying market needs.     

Is corruption bad for economic growth? Evidence from Asia-Pacific countries

This study utilizes the bootstrap panel Granger causality approach, which incorporates both cross-sectional dependence and heterogeneity across countries, to investigate whether corruption negatively impacts economic growth in thirteen Asia-Pacific countries over the 1997–2013 period. The empirical results show that there is a significantly positive causality running from corruption to economic growth in South Korea, a significantly positive causality running from economic growth to corruption in China and no significant causality between corruption and economic growth for the remaining countries. According to the empirical results, we do not support the common perception that corruption is bad for economic growth for all thirteen Asia-Pacific. On the contrary, results of this study suggest that the “grease the wheels” hypothesis is supported for South Korea. Additionally, results of this study indicate that for most Asia-Pacific countries, policy makers’ use of anti-corruption policies to promote a country's economic development may not be effective. Finally, results of this study also suggest that for China, increase in economic growth leads to an increase in corruption.     

Entrepreneurship and survival dynamics of immigrants to the U.S. and their descendants

Many studies have explored the determinants of entering into entrepreneurship and the differences in self-employment rates across racial and ethnic groups. However, very little is known about the survival in entrepreneurship of immigrants to the U.S. and their descendants.We adopt a modeling framework based on duration analysis, which takes into account both the fact that the stock of entrepreneurs initially observed represents a selected sample and the inability of observing in the data the exit time for some spells. Unlike previous studies, we find a lower survival probability in entrepreneurship for Mexican and other Hispanic immigrants, which does not carry on to their U.S.-born descendants. We also find that these two immigrant groups tend to enter entrepreneurship from unemployment or inactivity and they are more likely to exit towards employment in the wage sector, suggesting that entrepreneurship represents for them an intermediate step from non-employment to paid employment.     

Ethnicity and Self-Employment in Britain

This paper investigates the ethnic dimension of self-employment in the British labour market. It examines how both 'push' and 'pull' factors may lead members of non-white, ethnic minority groups to enter self-employment rather than paid-employment. Push factors include discrimination in paid-employment while pull factors refer to minority-specific entrepreneurial opportunities. Data from the General Household Survey and 1991 Census are employed to evaluate the empirical relevance of these issues and to explore differences between ethnic groups. Evidence of both push and pull factors is found.     

Entrepreneurship: Origins and returns

We examine the origins and outcome of entrepreneurship on the basis of exceptionally comprehensive Norwegian matched worker-firm-owner data. In contrast to most existing studies, our notion of entrepreneurship not only comprises self-employment, but also employment in partly self-owned limited liability companies. Based on this extended entrepreneurship concept, we find that entrepreneurship tends to be profitable. It also raises income variability, but the most successful quartile gains much more than the least successful quartile loses. Key determinants of the decision to become an entrepreneur are occupational qualifications, family resources, gender, and work environments. Individual unemployment encourages, while aggregate unemployment discourages, entrepreneurship.     

Key factors influencing HRM practices of overseas subsidiaries in China's transition economy

In seventy items measuring fourteen constructs of human resource management practices in 286 Chinese foreign subsidiaries headquartered in the United States, Japan and Germany, significant differences are related to financial control from the foreign parent, organizational form (joint venture, wholly owned foreign subsidiary or representative office) and time since entry into the Chinese market. The differences appear to be governed more by the push from parent-firm economic considerations and venture structure and the pull from specific Chinese HRM conditions than by the push related to home country of parent or factors associated with industry type. In addition, a fair number of HRM practices appear unaffected by any of these factors, and these may be more universal in form.     

Neighborhood social networks and female self-employment earnings in Taiwan

Using the sample of Taiwanese female self-employed workers from the Taiwan Women and Family Survey (TWFS) conducted in 1989, this article explores neighborhood social networks and female self-employment earnings. The evidence from linear regression and endogenous treatment effect models suggests that an individual’s past provision of personalized assistance to adjacent neighbors significantly increases current self-employment earnings, with corrections for self-selection into network participation. An individual’s past voluntary contributions to community organizational activities also significantly increase current earnings, both with and without corrections for self-selection. However, there are negative self-selections into both cooperative neighborhood networks and community organizational activities in the sense that female self-employed workers with high earnings capacity are less likely to choose to participate in these types of social networks.     

Transitions to and From Self-employment in Spain: An Empirical Analysis

This paper investigates the influence of individual characteristics and the business cycle on the probability of entry into self-employment and on self-employment duration. We estimate multinomial logit and discrete competing risks models using data from a longitudinal sample of Spanish men for the period 1985–1991. The results indicate that unemployment raises the probability of entering self-employment, but also increases the hazard of leaving self-employment, especially into unemployment. Moreover, receiving unemployment benefits significantly reduces the probability of entering self-employment. Liquidity constraints are important in determining enterpreneurial selection, but only for those who become self-employed with employees.     

Entrepreneurship and economic development: the EMPRETEC showcase

The hypothesis that entrepreneurship is linked to economic growth finds it’s most immediate foundation in simple intuition, common sense and pure economic observation: activities to convert ideas into economic opportunities lie at the very heart of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is a source of innovation and change, and as such spurs improvements in productivity and economic competitiveness. The entrepreneur has been a fundamental agent in most production, distribution and growth theories. The role of entrepreneurship as the driving force of economic growth found its most explicit foundation. Empretec was established in 1988 to promote entrepreneurship in developing countries. Empretec’s programs have been initiated in 27 countries plus additional centers in Brazil, assisting more than 80, entrepreneurs through local driven business support centers. The information collected for this paper was secondary data rather than conducting survey. Therefore, one objectives of this paper is to examine the exact nature of entrepreneurship and its role in economic theory.     

Are self-employment training programs effective? Evidence from Project GATE

We examine the efficacy of providing self-employment training to unemployed and other individuals interested in self-employment using data from Project GATE. This experimental design program offered self-employment training services to a random sample of individuals who expressed a strong interest in self-employment. We find that Project GATE was effective in helping unemployed participants to start their own business, leading to significant impacts in self-employment and overall employment soon after program entry. The program also helped unemployed participants remain self-employed and avoid unemployment even five years after program entry. However, the program was not effective in improving the labor market outcomes of participants who were not unemployed.