Cross-country growth-oriented entrepreneurship: When is a performance-based culture effective?

Abstract

Early inquiries into the contribution of performance-based cultural norms to growth-oriented entrepreneurship render their influence not significant. In a similar effort to explain cross-country differences in growth-oriented entrepreneurship, we propose and test a midrange, contingency-based model receiving strong support in analysis of 267 country-year observations from 66 countries. Results show economic development complements performance-based cultural norms to increase the extent of a country’s growth-oriented entrepreneurship; and this complementary effect appears only among those countries with high levels of regulatory simplicity. For policymakers targeting economic growth, our research suggests that policies should create a fertile environment for growth-oriented entrepreneurship to thrive on the established norms within their particular society; rather than benchmark possible approaches against other countries with high levels of growth-oriented entrepreneurship but very different established n...