Objectives The knowledge of the effects of white-collar crimes is incomplete. In the article, we operationalize white-collar crimes as bankruptcy frauds. Economic models maintain that interlinkages between firms may give 'domino effects': bankruptcy events could lead to 'bankruptcy chains' in which a bankruptcy spreads to other firms. Analogously, criminologists assert that social and economic networks can be a major source of fraud diffusion, with the potential to drive other firms bankrupt. Recent empirical results show that crimes may have detrimental and even asymmetric (nonlinear) effects on economic activity. We analyze the diffusion and the aggregate development of bankruptcy frauds in Sweden over nearly two hundred years, specifically focusing on the relationship between bankruptcy frauds and the bankruptcy volume. We also consider linkages between bankruptcy frauds, bankruptcies, and the macroeconomic cycle. Methods We use long, aggregate time series, collected from several different historical and contemporary sources. Applying the recently developed cointegrating nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) model, we investigate whether the bankruptcy volume reacts asymmetrically to increases and decreases in bankruptcy frauds, both in the short and the long run. Results Bankruptcy frauds reveal a causal effect on bankruptcies, showing an asymmetric (nonlinear) diffusion effect from economic frauds to the bankruptcy volume. Increases in bankruptcy frauds have a positive and significant effect on the bankruptcy volume. However, decreases in bankruptcy frauds show no significant effect. No causal relationship between the macroeconomic cycle and bankruptcy frauds is found.

Entrepreneurship will not always productive: Baumol (1990Baumol ( , 1993 distinguishes between productive, unproductive, and destructive entrepreneurial activities, and in the last two cases, new values are not created. Setting of from the notion of destructive entrepreneurship and the bankruptcy institute as framework for the empirical analysis, we use long aggregate series on bankruptcies and bankruptcy frauds in Sweden, 1830-2010. We operationalize destructive entrepreneurship with bankruptcy frauds. The bankruptcy institute is not a pure cleansing mechanism; assets can be redistributed by criminal procedure. Thus, a form of destructive entrepreneurship can be conducted within this system. We link bankruptcy frauds to the selection mechanism-the aggregate bankruptcy volume-over time. We cannot establish any direct linkages between the bankruptcy volume and institutional changes. However, and in line with research on bankruptcy diffusion and diffusion of economic crimes, we find that bankruptcy frauds have significant, positive impacts on the bankruptcy volume. Therefore, our results indicate that increases in bankruptcy frauds, destructive entrepreneurship, would affect the economic system.

Abstract:This research aims to interconnect entrepreneurship theories with brand theories. The study analyzes how this can be accomplished in the context of smaller agricultural firms, considering how intellectual property rights can be used strategically in entrepreneurial activities, ultimately creating regional growth. A firm has several options to protect its brands. Producers of similar products within a limited geographical area can protect the shared designated origin. Use of a collective brand, such as Champagne and Roquefort in France or Parmeggiano Reggiano in Italy, has been studied as a strategy to protect products from a given region. In the case analyzed here, a particular Austrian collective brand -Gailtaler Almkäse -was safeguarded within a protected designation of origin (PDO), providing producers a safe haven from which to enhance their collective brand in competitive markets. The PDO registration of the brand represents a central entrepreneurial strategy for manufacturers. To the region where the brands originate, the PDO has become a specific aspect of entrepreneurship that leads regional development.

Entrepreneurship has gained increasing support from governments in recent decades.

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