Abstract
This study establishes and empirically explores the relationship between knowledge, cultural diversity and various entrepreneurial outcomes across European cities in 2008–2010. We demonstrate that the mechanism of knowledge spillover entrepreneurship is contextual and contend that cultural diversity and knowledge have differential impact on entrepreneurial outcomes across cities and countries. Cities with high cultural diversity provide more opportunities for entrepreneurship in sectors where technology and knowledge play more important role. While in technology-based sectors, we observe a decline in employment, in cities where cultural diversity is moderately high, this effect is counteracted by an increase in demand for skilful labour that is more concentrated in culturally diverse contexts. Implications for regional and national policy makers and international entrepreneurs are offered.
Highlights
Economists and policy makers have long observed that regional success depends upon entrepreneurial activity (Audretsch 2007; Glaeser et al 2010) which varies systematically across space (Delgado et al 2010)
We focus on the following three entrepreneurship outcome variables: (a) A number of net business entry by industry city at time t normalised by the total number of enterprises in this industry city at time t (Audretsch et al 2006; Glaeser et al 2014). (b) A number of start-ups born in t-3 (2005–2007) and survived to t by industry city (2008–2010) normalised by the total number of enterprises in this industry city at time t (Audretsch and Feldman 1996; Agarwal and Audretsch 2001; Saridakis et al 2008; Coad et al 2013)
A number of studies draw on the cultural diversity, and knowledge constructs aim to depict and explain different aspects of the entrepreneurship dynamics and market processes (Qian 2013; Audretsch et al 2015a; Dheer 2017; Spanjer and van Witteloostuijn 2017), and there is still lack of a systemic analysis linking knowledge and diversity to entrepreneurial outcomes especially in the context of cross-city cross-country comparisons
Summary
Economists and policy makers have long observed that regional success depends upon entrepreneurial activity (Audretsch 2007; Glaeser et al 2010) which varies systematically across space (Delgado et al 2010). Given the growing cultural diversity within and across countries, regional variations can often be as significant as cross-country differences. Despite evidence of the macro-level factors (Agarwal et al 2007; Delmar et al 2011; Acs et al 2014), mechanisms and contextual conditions under which cultural diversity and knowledge transfer support new ideas and productivity (Gomez-Mejia and Palich 1997; Van Wijk et al 2008; Stahl et al 2010; Spanjer and van Witteloostuijn 2017), there is still lack of a systemic analysis linking knowledge and diversity to entrepreneurial outcomes especially in the context of cross-city cross-country comparisons (Audretsch et al 2015a; Dheer 2017). Cities characterized by a high level of knowledge and cultural diversity may form an ideal ecosystem to explore and commercialize entrepreneurial ideas
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
