Entrepreneurship in a Regional Context: Historical Roots, Recent Developments and Future Challenges

Abstract

Fritsch M. and Storey D. J. Entrepreneurship in a regional context: historical roots, recent developments and future challenges, Regional Studies. This paper reviews research on regional new business formation published in four special issues of Regional Studies over a period of 30 years. It is observed that over those decades there has been a heightened recognition of the role of both formal institutions and ‘soft’ factors such as social capital and a culture of entrepreneurship. However, the core challenge is to explain why, in several high-income countries, despite these claimed cultural changes, the relative position of regions with regard to new business formation exhibits little or no variation over long periods of time.

Fritsch M. and Storey D. J. 区域脉络中的创业精神：历史根源、晚近的发展与未来的挑战，区域研究。本文回顾发表于区域研究期刊三十年间的四个特刊中，有关区域新企业形成的研究。本文观察到，这数十年来，增加了对于正式制度与诸如社会资本及创业精神文化等‘软性’因素的承认。然而核心的挑战，在于解释为何在部分高所得国家中, 儘管宣称具有上述的文化变迁，但区域之于新企业形成的相对位置，长期下来却几乎没有变动、甚至是完全相同。

Fritsch M. et Storey D. J. L'esprit d'entreprise dans un contexte régional: les racines historiques, les développements récents et les défis à venir, Regional Studies. Cet article examine les travaux de recherche sur la création de nouvelles entreprises sur le plan régional qui ont été publiés dans quatre numéros spéciaux de Regional Studies sur une période de 30 années. Il est à noter que sur ces décennies il y a eu une reconnaissance accrue du rôle des institutions officielles et des facteurs ‘doux’, tels le capital social et une culture d'entrepreneuriat. Cependant, le défi primordial consiste à expliquer pourquoi, dans plusieurs pays à revenu élevé, en dépit des prétendus changements culturels, la situation relative des régions quant à la création de nouvelles entreprises montre peu ou pas de variation au fil des années.

Fritsch M. und Storey D. J. Entrepreneurship im regionalen Kontext – historische Wurzeln, neuere Entwicklungen und zukünftige Herausforderungen, Regional Studies. Wir geben einen Überblick über die Entwicklung der Forschung über das regionale Gründungsgeschehen anhand von vier Special Issues von Regional Studies, die über einen Zeitraum von dreißig Jahren erschienen sind. Über die Jahre wurde die Bedeutung sowohl von formalen Institutionen als auch von ‘weichen’ Faktoren wie etwa Sozialkapital und einer regionalen ‘Kultur’ unternehmerischer Selbständigkeit zunehmend erkannt. Eine wesentliche Herausforderung für zukünftige Forschung besteht darin, zu erklären, wieso in einer Reihe von entwickelten Ländern die relative Position von Regionen in Bezug auf das Gründungsgeschehen über lange Perioden weitgehend konstant geblieben ist, obwohl sich sowohl das Niveau der Gründungsaktivitäten als auch die allgemeine Einstellung zu unternehmerischer Selbständigkeit über die Zeit wesentlich verändert hat.

Fritsch M. y Storey D. J. Espíritu empresarial en un contexto regional: raíces históricas, desarrollos recientes y retos futuros, Regional Studies. En este artículo presentamos una sinopsis de los estudios sobre la creación de nuevos negocios de ámbito regional publicados en cuatro números especiales de Regional Studies durante un periodo de 30 años. Observamos que durante estos decenios ha habido un mayor reconocimiento del papel de las instituciones formales y los factores ‘blandos’ tales como el capital social y la cultura del empresariado. Sin embargo, el reto fundamental es explicar por qué en varios países con ingresos altos pese a los cambios culturales afirmados, la posición relativa de las regiones con respecto a la creación de nuevos negocios muestra poca o ninguna variación durante largos periodos de tiempo.

• Entrepreneurship
• New business formation
• Regional characteristics

• 创业精神
• 新企业形成
• 区域特徵

• Esprit d'entreprise
• Création de nouvelles entreprises
• Traits régionaux

• Entrepreneurship
• Gründungsgeschehen
• Regionale Gegebenheiten

• Espíritu empresarial
• Creación de nuevas empresas
• Características regionales

JEL classifications:

• L26
• O18
• R1

Acknowledgements

The authors are indebted to the Editors of Regional Studies, and to Arnoud Lagendijk in particular, for their support and encouragement in the preparation of this special issue.

Notes

1. These papers in the special issues were supplemented by others on this topic in a separate book (Storey, 1985).

2. In the associated edited volume (Storey, 1985) two chapters relate to the United States (Shaffer and Pulver, 1985; Markusen and Teitz, 1985).

3. The European Value Study (http://www.europeanvaluesstudy.eu/) also provides such information at a regional level. Unfortunately, in some regions it has insufficient observations.

4. A notable exception is the Nordic countries. For example, Dahl and Sorenson (2012) draw upon the Danish IDA database to track individuals and their enterprises. They conclude that new firms performed better when their owners had lived for a longer period in the region in which they start a business.

5. For example, Greene et al. (2008) find that about one in four new business owners also own another business. The earlier work by Rosa and Scott (1999) – albeit restricted to limited companies – found half had only a single director but that 10% had more than three.

6. Obschonka et al. (2013) find evidence that people with an entrepreneurial personality are not evenly spread over space but are clustered in certain regions.

7. Parker (2009, p. 380) is more positive about the positive strength of this relationship and attributes much of the inconsistency to the lack of econometric sophistication in the approaches used by some researchers.

8. This corresponds to the distinction between ‘nature’ (an individual's innate qualities) and ‘nurture’ (personal experiences made) that can be particularly found in the psychological literature (White et al., 2007; Obschonka and Silbereisen, 2012).

9. The average age of an innovative founder in Germany is about 41 years (Metzger et al., 2010; Mueller, 2010). Assuming that an average founder has finished his or her university education at the age of 25, this means that he or she has worked as a dependent employee for a period of a little more than 15 years before starting their own firm.

10. Roberts and Eesley (2011) by assessing the employment effects of new businesses set up by alumni of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) find that only about one-third of the jobs created in these firms are located in Massachusetts.