Beyond GEM: understanding the multidimensional nature of entrepreneurship in diverse national realities

In the late 1990s, there was considerable interest in national differences in entrepreneurial activity. The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) research program was developed to provide harmonized, cross-national measures of participation in business creation; business creation was considered a critical aspect of entrepreneurship. This information was considered important for understanding the national characteristics associated with business creation and its subsequent impact on economic growth. The initial effort involved 10 countries in 1999. By 2014 Adult Population Surveys (APS) had been completed 705 times in 104 countries and with six special samples; this involved 2.3 million individual interviews. While there have been changes in the administrative structure and the focus of the annual global reports, the most significant data collection procedures have been stable since 2002. The GEM APS data sets are currently the only harmonized cross-national comparisons of business creation and business ownership. Designed to provide estimates of the prevalence of both business creation and existing firms, they also allow estimates of the total number of business ventures. GEM data sets are publically available three years after completion, providing a unique resource for assessing factors affecting business creation and its subsequent role in economic growth. Systematic assessments by national experts in participating countries provide measures of the national entrepreneurial framework conditions, complementing a variety of established measures of national economic and political characteristics. There are three distinct features that characterize the GEM initiative: the unique organizational structure, the global reports summarizing annual assessments of entrepreneurial activity, and data sets assembled and made available for public use. The initial organizational structure, a collaborative arrangement among national teams, was replaced by membership in the Global Entrepreneurship Research Association (GERA) in 2004. The annual global reports emphasize comparisons among member countries, the annual national reports the country-specific situations. Both are designed to facilitate reality-based public policy. Data collection for the APS provides harmonized comparisons of business creation across countries and within-country time series. The APS data has made clear the substantial variation among countries, by a factor of 10; that national levels of participation are very stable over time; that business creation is much more prevalent in poorer countries; that all segments of society are active in business creation; and that business creation is an important catalyst for the processes that lead to economic growth. The National Expert Survey (NES) questionnaire data provides information about the nature of the entrepreneurial framework in the GEN countries. There is much to be learned about the relationships between national context, entrepreneurship, and economic growth. The unique information in the GEM data sets should continue to facilitate improved understanding of this important phenomenon.

PurposeThe main objective of this paper is to analyse the influence of environmental factors on entrepreneurship at the Spanish regional level, using institutional economics as the theoretical framework for the research. Additionally, this work aims to emphasize how environmental conditions have different effects according to the gender of entrepreneurs.Design/methodology/approachRegional panel data (19 Spanish regions and the 2006‐2009 period) from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), specifically from the Spanish National Expert Survey (NES) for environmental conditions and the GEM Adult Population Survey (APS) for entrepreneurial activity were analysed within a fixed effects model with panel corrected standard errors.FindingsThe main findings of the study indicate that both informal (cultural and social norms, perception of opportunities to start‐up and entrepreneur social image) and formal factors (intellectual property rights) influence entrepreneurship, but the informal are more determinant than the formal. Concerning the gender issues, informal and formal institutions are also determinant, but female entrepreneurship is significantly associated with the women's support to start‐up, whereas primary and higher education are associated only with male entrepreneurial activity.Research limitations/implicationsThe results of the research should be interpreted carefully, because the availability of data constrained the analysis to a time period that is not reflective of the economic cycle; on the contrary, the data correspond to a period of recession, and thus the results cannot be generalized. Also, the study could extend the analysed period and compare the obtained results with international data, considering the global number of participant countries in the GEM Project.Originality/valueThe study provides a methodology to analyse the environmental factors for new firm creation at a regional level, combining GEM data and institutional economics.

Global Entrepreneurship Monitor : Scotland 2020 Report

This article investigates the relationship between entrepreneurial activities, income inequality and human development in Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) nations. The study uses a 12-year time series data (2004–2015) for five BRICS countries: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The secondary data are collected from Global Entrepreneurship and Development Institute (GEDI), Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), World Bank indicators and World Inequality Database. Fixed effect and random effect approach are used to develop a model for investigating the association among entrepreneurial activities, income inequality and human development. The study found that entrepreneurial activities will not only increase the share of the top 1% earners but also increase the share of bottom 50% earners in BRICS countries. Thus, the difference between richest and poorest will remain constant, and entrepreneurial activities have neutral impact on income inequality. The other important finding of the study is that entrepreneurial activities have a positive impact on human development in BRICS nations. Hence, personal gains linked with enhanced entrepreneurial activities accrue to both top 1% and bottom 50% earners. Thus, entrepreneurship will increase the share of the richest and poorest in national income and the poorest can also enjoy the benefits of economic growth, which results in more human development in the societies of BRICS nations. The study recommends to policymakers of BRICS nations that they should focus on creation of entrepreneurial ecosystem in BRICS countries, which further enhances the human development in these economies. In addition, the study more precisely recommends that welfare of the society could be improved with the help of entrepreneurial activities. The study analyses the characteristics, motivations and ambitions of individual starting businesses in BRICS countries.

The original global entrepreneurship monitor model predicts that the business activity at the national level varies with the general national framework conditions, while entrepreneurial activity varies with the entrepreneurial framework conditions (Reynolds et al., 2005). The aim of the national expert survey is to provide a general diagnostic approach to the entrepreneurship institutions that can be applied to any territorial level: as nation, region, city or others. It selects a representative sample of experts and asks them to make valuations on the target territory, using questionnaires. The global entrepreneurship monitor also provides the total early-stage entrepreneurship activity for the studied countries which is the percent of working age population both about to start an entrepreneurial activity, and that have started one from a maximum of three years and half. Therefore, this paper examines data collected from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2011 National Expert Survey Global Individual Level Data in order to assess the impact of the environmental variables on entrepreneurship. Results show that the variables entrepreneurial level of education at vocational, professional, college and university, research and development level of transference, physical infrastructures and services access and cultural, social norms and society support, have more impact in the total early-stage entrepreneurship activity.

In 2010, data was collected to explore entrepreneurship in a Pacific context. The preliminary conceptual model is based on the triangulation of findings from the national expert survey (NES) and adult population survey (APS) components of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM). For the NES, 25 national experts were interviewed in order to understand the factors that constrain and promote entrepreneurial activity. The APS analysed the responses of 1,184 household members across Tonga regarding their actual experiences and perceptions of entrepreneurial activity. Our analysis uses grounded theory in tandem with this model because of the lack of tested theory regarding entrepreneurship in the Pacific. The NES data was initially used in the analysis, and the triangulated confirmatory findings from the APS were used once the emergent propositions had become clear. Seven new propositions are developed that extend our existing conceptualisation of entrepreneurship. The research implications and limitations are discussed.

This study aims to contribute to advancing the understanding of entrepreneurial ecosystems, Latin American development, and the evolution and future perspectives of the Middle East. It used a cross-sectional research design and quantitative data with 750 observations from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, specifically the National Experts Survey and the Adult Population Survey. The results were analyzed by the Partial Least Squares Technique (PLS-SEM) by grouping countries into two balanced samples of underexplored regions: the Middle East and Latin America. The two regions, Latin America and the Middle East, have diverse entrepreneurial ecosystems; each condition impacts entrepreneurial activities in different ways. In Latin America, the most significant variable is “Physical Infrastructure”, while in the Middle East, the most significant determinants are “Commercial and Professional Infrastructure” and “Entrepreneurship Culture”. This study shows that to support entrepreneurial activities, each region requires different settings for their entrepreneurial ecosystems. It contributes to the literature on regional entrepreneurial ecosystems and to less explored regions to advance our understanding, which will drive better policies and actions.

Effect of entrepreneurial framework conditions on R&D transfer to new and growing firms: The case of European Union innovation-driven countries

The purpose of this article is to define the factors of the entrepreneurial environment which could drive productive entrepreneurial activity from the macro-economic perspective. The main research question therefore is to identify, what are the main environmental drivers of productive entrepreneurial activity and what is its effective sectorial structure. Our analysis is based on 2013 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) data obtained through an adult population survey and national expert survey. In our investigation we employ PATH-analysis, SEM model and multiple regression analysis to empirically define the effective structure of entrepreneurial activity for the performance of an economy and the environmental factors that impact it. This approach empirically examines the directions of influence in the above mentioned relationships. In addition, the robustness of our findings was checked by repeating our analysis on a different sample (2010 GEM data on 59 economies) and by multiplying regression analysis for separate variables of entrepreneurial activity effectiveness, and our results were confirmed. Our findings suggest that of all the different environmental enablers, access to infrastructure (both physical and commercial) is the most influential attribute of entrepreneurial environment affecting economic performance at a macro level and the effective sectorial structure of business activities. Overall, the main drivers of the productiveness of entrepreneurship are: access to infrastructure, rule of law, effective government programs and market openness and dynamics.

Purpose For two decades, the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) has collected survey and national expert data to better understand entrepreneurial activity and the country context within which this occurs. In this paper, we re-envision GEM’s country groupings, positing a novel approach to more fully understanding the nuances of entrepreneurial activity. Design/methodology/approach Using data from the GEM’s Entrepreneurial Framework Conditions (EFCs) (2017–2020), we employ an unsupervised machine learning method (clustering) to classify countries into distinct groups according to country-specific government policies, education, sociocultural, and entrepreneurship infrastructure support. Then, building on the identified two sets of distinct economies (termed as “matured” and “maturing” entrepreneurial economies) and using the GEM’s data on Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Attitudes (EBAs), fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) is applied to highlight the complex nature of entrepreneurial intentions and to identify configurations of possible conditions that confirm intention pathways in entrepreneurial activities in each cluster of economies. Findings Our key findings suggest that in “matured” economies, where entrepreneurship is well-supported, people are driven by opportunity and a supportive environment. Moreover, in “maturing” economies, where there is less support, factors like personal status and overcoming fear of failure play a bigger role in their motivations. This new perspective is crucial not just for understanding entrepreneurship but also for shaping policies that truly support budding entrepreneurs. The results suggest that governments should tailor their support for entrepreneurship based on their maturity level. Originality/value Historically, GEM grouped countries based on the level of economic development (efficiency, innovation and factor economies) and, more recently, used the level of income (high, medium and low). Both categorisations are essentially outcome factors reflecting economic progress. While it is useful to compare countries based on these dimensions, we propose grouping based on entrepreneurial framework or contextual conditions, enabling scholars and policy makers alike to better understand how context influences entrepreneurial activity.

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) presents an annual assessment of the national level of ‘early-stage’ entrepreneurial activity and the institutional conditions to which it is subject in a large number of countries. Within the framework of GEM a TEA (Total early-stage Entrepreneurial Activity) index has been developed to measure (early-stage) entrepreneurial activity. Next to this TEA index, the GEM also provides an indicator for the prevalence of export-oriented entrepreneurs within countries. This chapter presents an example of an empirical analysis using macro-level GEM data for 36 countries. More specifically, this chapter investigates whether the presence of export-oriented entrepreneurs is a more important determinant of economic growth than entrepreneurial activity in general. Our results suggest that export-oriented entrepreneurship is indeed more important for achieving high economic growth rates than entrepreneurial activity in general.

The purpose of this study is to explore the influence of innovation in the total early entrepreneurial business activities (TEA) (i.e. nascent and new entrepreneurs) on job creation in the Sultanate of Oman. In other words, the objective of this research is to examine the extent to which current innovation types in entrepreneurial activities have an impact on creating jobs. The TEA innovation will be measured by the ability of the enterprise to adopt new technology and the ability to create new products or services in the market. Based on the existing empirical studies, a conceptual model has been developed accordingly. To achieve the research objective, this study applied the data collected from national Omanis at the individual level using the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) data 2020 to test the stated hypotheses. The sample of this study consist of 2000 Omani households who are involved in business entrepreneurial activities. Using structural equation modeling in PLS (SEM-PLS). The results revealed that the innovation in nascent and new entrepreneurs affects the level of created jobs in the Sultanate of Oman. The findings also demonstrate nascent and new entrepreneurs’ innovativeness ability to create jobs reflected significantly on both current and expected creation of jobs.

Entrepreneurship has been considered as an important issue in Iran’s strategic objectives since the country’s Third Economic Development Plan (2000–2004). In pursuit of promoting entrepreneurship, the Faculty of Entrepreneurship was founded at the University of Tehran which has represented Iran in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) since 2008. Joining GEM has provided Iranian policymakers and academics with a more comprehensive perspective on entrepreneurial activity, and has given them valuable insight into the country’s relative position in terms of entrepreneurship compared to other GEM participants across the world. This chapter mainly follows the GEM framework and uses its data to study different phases of entrepreneurial journey for both women and men. Moreover, the rate of business discontinuance in Iran will be compared to different regions, and the reasons for business discontinuation in the country will be explained. Then, in a gender comparison, the dynamics of women’s entrepreneurial activity and entrepreneurial motivation in the country for the period of 2008–2014 will be examined. To explore the feasibility of internationalization for Iranian entrepreneurs, the performance of Iran in international trade will be studied by using data from the Heritage Foundation (Index of Economic Freedom), the World Bank (Trading Across Borders) and the GEM (International Entrepreneurship). The position of Iranian female entrepreneurs in international commerce will also be explored and examined. At the end of the chapter, the sector distribution of entrepreneurial activity in Iran will be discussed.

The requirement to contextualize research in the field of entrepreneurship has converted into the main theme from the last two decades. Therefore, this study bridges the gap by analyzing the relationship between the entrepreneurial activity in northern Europe and the Asian region countries in perspective of an individuals’ perception skills, attitudes, and the subjective norms. Based on our research, we propose a new conceptual framework to analyze EI in the context of entrepreneurship by using the theory of planned behavior (TBP) and the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM). We empirically examine the influence of key developmental differences on the entrepreneurial intentions (EI) model with structural equation modeling (SEM). In the studied GEM countries, our findings affirm the applicability of the EI model across countries confirming that entrepreneurial activities are the key drivers of economic growth. The findings also recommend that the progression from perception to intent is modified across the 23 European and Asian countries, though there exist several cultural differences to the extent of casual effects also including the differences of influential factors. This study contributes to the debate on entrepreneurship by analyzing key factors influencing the EI model and extends our understanding of entrepreneurship.

The requirement to contextualize research in the field of entrepreneurship has converted into the main theme from the last two decades. Therefore, this study bridges the gap by analyzing the relationship between the entrepreneurial activity in northern Europe and the Asian region countries in perspective of an individuals’ perception skills, attitudes, and the subjective norms. Based on our research, we propose a new conceptual framework to analyze EI in the context of entrepreneurship by using the theory of planned behavior (TBP) and the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM). We empirically examine the influence of key developmental differences on the entrepreneurial intentions (EI) model with structural equation modeling (SEM). In the studied GEM countries, our findings affirm the applicability of the EI model across countries confirming that entrepreneurial activities are the key drivers of economic growth. The findings also recommend that the progression from perception to intent is modified across the 23 European and Asian countries, though there exist several cultural differences to the extent of casual effects also including the differences of influential factors. This study contributes to the debate on entrepreneurship by analyzing key factors influencing the EI model and extends our understanding of entrepreneurship.