Regional ecologies of entrepreneurship

Abstract

Why do some regions produce more entrepreneurs than others? An ecological lens provides insight into this question: The demography of organizations in a region—particularly the proportion of small and young employers—shapes many aspects of the environment for would-be entrepreneurs: (i) beliefs about the desirability of founding a firm, (ii) opportunities to learn about entrepreneurship and to build the abilities needed to succeed and (iii) the ease of acquiring critical resources. Births of new industries and the demise of mature ones can therefore catalyze rapid changes in the rates of entrepreneurship that become self-reinforcing.