Regional Dimensions of Entrepreneurship

Foundations and Trends® in Entrepreneurship

(Vol 5, Issue 4, 2009, pp 211-340)

DOI: 10.1561/0300000024

Abstract

It was Maryann Feldman who first characterized entrepreneurship as a predominantly "regional event." While the spatial, or more specifically, the regional perspective has long been ignored by entrepreneurship research, this changed in recent years. Globalization and regionalization (as two sides of the same coin), the new role of small firms in general for regional growth, and the increasing relevance of entrepreneurship policies drew several researchers' attention to the regional causes and consequences of entrepreneurial activities.

This review assesses several theoretical arguments supporting the idea that entrepreneurial activities as well as entrepreneurial success (measured, for example, in terms of survival rates) are influenced in many cases by the attributes of the region (defined as a sub-national spatial unit) where the potential founder and the real founder of a firm was or actually is located. While there are still significant gaps in research in terms of adequate regional theories of entrepreneurship, a great number of empirical studies have been undertaken in the past decade to explore the interdependent relationship between regional environment on the one hand and entrepreneurial activities and success on the other. The results are quite heterogeneous, as are the environments between regions within and especially between countries. However, it is rather clear now that the regional environment as an important context variable must not be ignored any further when exploring the determinants of firm creation and of new-firm growth.