The entrepreneur in the regional innovation system. A comparative study for high- and low-income regions

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates the influence of entrepreneurs’ characteristics on innovation in regions with different levels of development. By doing so, this work seeks to contribute to a better understanding of the role of entrepreneurs in the functioning and performance of regional innovation systems. The influence of entrepreneurs’ personal characteristics and their perceptions of the business environment on firm innovation are investigated via a survey of companies carried out in six Spanish regions. The results allow the identifying of significant differences in the main determinants of innovation in the high-income regions and low-income regions studied. Entrepreneurs’ generalized trust stimulates innovation only in high-income regions, where necessity motivation has also a negative effect on innovation. Growth ambition seems to play a highly positive role only in the case of low-income regions. Human capital and infrastructure are perceived by the entrepreneurs as the main bottlenecks for innovation in low-income regions, whereas in the case of high-income regions the legal, fiscal and financial systems are considered the key institutional barriers. These differences in the entrepreneurial factor should be taken into account in order to design and implement policies to stimulate and foster innovation in different regional contexts.

KEYWORDS:

• Innovation
• entrepreneur
• regional innovation system
• Spain
• business environment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Entrepreneurs’ education was also considered as an explanatory factor, but it turned out to be non-significant in the econometric models. This does not mean entrepreneurs’ education has no effect on innovation, but its effect comes through other variables in the model, as suggested by Romero and Martínez–Román (2012).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Regional Government of Andalusia (Spain) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) under the Grant number [P09-SEJ-4857]; and the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness Spanish under the Grant number [ECO2013-42889-P] (National Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation).