Entrepreneurial Environment and Economic Growth: What Affects the Productiveness of Business Activity at Macro Level?

Abstract

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.