Varieties of export-oriented entrepreneurship in Asia

This paper explores differences in the proportion of export-oriented early-stage entrepreneurial activity in 12 Asian countries. Drawing on varieties of capitalism theory, we find that Asian countries with high quality institutions are more likely to have higher proportions of young export-oriented firms. However, analysis on a 51 country data set indicates that Asian countries have significantly fewer young export-oriented firms than do non-Asian countries. Furthermore, the multi-country study reveals that countries with higher proportions of export-oriented entrepreneurial activity tend to have flexible industrial relations, high quality vocational training, and confrontational labor–employer relations, however the proportion of export-oriented new ventures is not related to the quality of corporate governance and inter-firm relations.

Jolanda HesselsEmail:

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Siri Terjesen   (PhD, Cranfield University) is an assistant professor in the Management and Entrepreneurship Department at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. Concurrently, she is a visiting research fellow at the Max Planck Institute of Economics in Jena, Germany. Her primary research interests are international entrepreneurship and strategic management. She has published in journals including Strategic Management Journal, Small Business Economics, Journal of Business Ethics, Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice and Venture Capital and is co-author (with Anne Huff, Steve Floyd and Hugh Sherman) of Strategic Management. Jolanda Hessels   (PhD, Erasmus University Rotterdam) is an assistant professor at the Erasmus School of Economics and a researcher at EIM Business and Policy in Zoetermeer. Her research interests include internationalization of SMEs, international new ventures and cross-country comparisons of entrepreneurship. Her work has been published in several journals including Small Business Economics as well as book chapters. Jolanda is the project coordinator of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) for the Netherlands.