Date of Award

2019

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

PhD in Business

Department

Department of Management

First Advisor

Linda F. Edelman

Second Advisor

Tatiana S. Manolova

Third Advisor

Candida S. Brush

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the role of context in entrepreneurship. I intend to shed light on the role of context in facilitating country level entrepreneurial activity through a multi-method approach in this three-paper format dissertation. In paper one, I systematically review two country level measures of entrepreneurship, namely Total Entrepreneurial Activity from The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) and New Business Density from The World Bank Group Entrepreneurship Survey (WBGES), to understand how used in extant literature and investigate the research question: What are the primary antecedents and outcomes associated with country level entrepreneurship?

In paper two of this dissertation, I aim to address some of the specific gaps in the literature review by diving deeper to focus on the South American region, and more specifically Chile, Brazil, and Argentina, to examine the direct impact of government policy on the rate of country level entrepreneurial activity and standards of living in this region. I provide an exhaustive fifteen-year empirical analysis of a government program initiative, known as Start-Up Chile, which was incepted in 2010 to boost startup activity and stimulate the Chilean economy. I use institutional theory as a conceptual framework and investigate the research question: What is the effect of government entrepreneurship accelerator programs on the rate of total entrepreneurial activity and standards of living within the country in which they are started, in comparison to other countries which have not adopted the government entrepreneurship accelerator program?

In paper three, I use both measures Total Entrepreneurial Activity from The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) and New Business Density from The World Bank Group Entrepreneurship Survey (WBGES) that were reviewed in paper one, to tests the impact of the institutional, social, business, and spatial context on country level entrepreneurship activity across 78 countries over an eight-year period (2008-2015). I use Welter’s four "where" dimensions of the context for entrepreneurship (2011) as a framework to investigate the research question: What is the effect of the institutional, social, business, and spatial context on overall entrepreneurship, opportunity entrepreneurship, necessity entrepreneurship, and formal entrepreneurship?

Download

Share

COinS