High-Growth Business Creation and Management: a Multivariate Quantitative Approach Using GEM Data

Abstract

Entrepreneurship is defined as the effort to generate and create jobs and innovate leading to economic growth. Despite the importance that has been given to this phenomenon, inequalities regarding the ability to trigger and manage the entrepreneurial activity remain. This research aims to describe and account for the entrepreneurship levels, particularly in order to understand what leads certain countries’ individuals to display higher levels of initiative to manage or create a high-growth business. In order to achieve this goal, a research program that includes annual assessments of entrepreneurial activity levels in several countries has been used—The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), which is, currently, one of the main international research databases aiming to describe, analyse and compare the entrepreneurial process in a wide range of countries. The database studied in this work is the 2011 NES, containing 144 variables in which 136 are qualitative (97 ordinal qualitative and 39 nominal qualitative). The data were analysed transforming the ordinal qualitative variables in ordinal quantitative, where the answers were given in a Likert scale from 1 to 5. The sample of the database consists of 1852 national and regional entrepreneurship experts selected on the basis of reputation and experience (through a convenience sample approach). Our research used several multivariate analysis techniques, in particular the multiple linear regression analysis, the cluster analysis and the discriminant analysis. In general, our conclusions suggest that individuals who react quickly to opportunities seem to display better abilities of time management and are more willing to start a business. Our results also show that the national culture does not influence the individual ability of managing the personal life.