Abstract
Although there is a rich debate about entrepreneurship and its impact on economic development, much less is known about the actual levels of entrepreneurial activity. The main aim of the article is, thus, to map the level of entrepreneurial activity in the Czech Republic, its structure, and development during the years 2005–2017. The study is based on the secondary data obtained from national structural business statistics, the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, and the Labour Force Survey. The average rate of entrepreneurial activity in the Czech Republic was 15.2% of the economically active population aged 15–64 years during the analysed period. The activity is dominated by solo-self-employed workers (own-account workers). Job creators represent only 3.2% of the economically active population. Patterns and cohorts of entrepreneurs were identified regarding gender, age, and education. There were 2.5 times more self-employed males compared to females for the past years, and the proportion of job creators is also higher for males. The Czech job creators are on average older (mostly represented in age cohort 40–49 years) compared to solo-self-employed (mainly represented in age cohort 35–44 years) and they have obtained tertiary education to a larger extent. Classification and monitoring of the Czech entrepreneurial activity might serve as an overview for Czech policymakers and regional scholars. Especially from a job creation perspective, it might be very relevant to understand the characteristics of those individuals who employ other workers, aside from themselves. From an international perspective, this study might serve as an inspiration to shed more light on the national levels of entrepreneurship and self-employment.
Highlights
Policymakers, researchers, and scholars often talk about the positive impact of entrepreneurship on the economic development of countries, regions, and cities
Dvouletý [49] was not able to find a positive impact on the real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita for the rate of new self-employed set-ups. The increase in both forms of newly established business activity was associated with lower unemployment rates in the Czech regions [49]. Such an observation leads to the conclusion that not all kinds of entrepreneurship and self-employment are equal in their contributions to economic development, as already mentioned earlier in the text, and it is essential to study the structure and different types of entrepreneurial activity [25]
Given the data availability of Labour Force Survey (LFS), we aim to identify across job patterns creatorsinand solo-self-employed workers in the Czech Republic relating to gender, age, and education, accounting for the limitation that there are other identified determinants of self-employment
Summary
Policymakers, researchers, and scholars often talk about the positive impact of entrepreneurship on the economic development of countries, regions, and cities. As the assumption of the positive impact of entrepreneurship on economic growth is based mainly on findings from developed countries, it is crucial to explore entrepreneurship in other countries that have not been studied before, as recommended by Davidsson [26,27], and to see whether the traditional patterns described in entrepreneurship literature are valid or not. The increase in both forms of newly established business activity was associated with lower unemployment rates in the Czech regions [49] Such an observation leads to the conclusion that not all kinds of entrepreneurship and self-employment are equal in their contributions to economic development, as already mentioned earlier in the text, and it is essential to study the structure and different types of entrepreneurial activity [25]. The final section concludes the article and provides recommendations for future research
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