Entrepreneurship, culture, and the epigenetic revolution: a research note

Abstract

We show how the type of alcohol consumed is related to the type of entrepreneurship present for economies in Europe. We differentiate between beer-, wine-, and spirit-drinking countries and distinguish between productive, unproductive, and destructive entrepreneurship. The underlying links do not emerge from drinking per se but rather the drinking habits and taste for beverage types capture deep cultural features and cultural similarities amongst the countries. Societies that prefer to drink beer are closer to each other culturally than those which prefer drinking wine or spirits. Therefore, the taste for alcohol type is merely an instrument in explaining cultural and institutional differences across entrepreneurship. Broadly speaking, beer-drinking countries are characterized by higher shares of productive entrepreneurship, wine-drinking countries with unproductive entrepreneurship, and spirit-drinking countries with destructive entrepreneurship. We discuss mechanisms in which the results are found and highlight a new research agenda, emphasizing the potential role of epigenetics.

The Collaboration of Social Entrepreneurship and Institution for Sustainable Regional Development Security

“…Conceptually, the rationality and empiricism of the relationship between economic growth, factor input, institutions, and entrepreneurship were previously studied. The results supported the role of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in economic growth (Acs et al, 2018;Acs & Lappi, 2021). Steyart & Hjorth (2006) stated that social entrepreneurship had been neglected in the entrepreneurial literature before the 2000s.…”

“…However, organizations still face institutional complexity whenever they confront inappropriate prescriptions from various institutional logics (Agrawal & Hockerts, 2016;Lee et al, 2020). Furthermore, basic institutional theory in social entrepreneurship research provides useful insights into the organizational formation, vision, mission, identity, culture, processes, and memory (Agrawal & Hockerts, 2016;Acs & Lappi, 2021). Previous research indicates that formal and informal institutions' combined institutional configuration offers more explanatory power than examining their individual effects (Stephan, Uhlaner, & Stride, 2015).…”

A decade of research on the genetics of entrepreneurship: a review and view ahead

“…In so-called gene-byenvironment ("GxE") studies (Keller 2014;Thompson 2014), polygenic risk scores could be used to investigate how entrepreneurship results from the interplay between genetic endowments and environmental factors. For example, a recent study argues that cultural factors (as proxied by the taste for alcoholic drinks) may influence how genes shape different types of entrepreneurship (Acs and Lappi 2019). In general, a good fit between individuals and their occupations has been shown to be important for high levels of productivity (Kristof-Brown et al 2005Importantly, the identifiable occurrence of matches and mismatches between an individual and his or her career choices and the possible impact on stress and health was a crucial argument for the medical profession to cooperate with behavioral researchers in the search for the genes associated with entrepreneurship (Koellinger et al 2010;Van der Loos et al 2010).…”

Wired in? Genetic traits and entrepreneurship around the world

“…First, we advance the entrepreneurship research by generalizing the micro-foundations of entrepreneurial activities to include genetic factors. We do so by providing robust evidence that links genetic traits to entrepreneurship in a largen cross-country context that complements recent scholarly work in this vein (Acs and Lappi, 2019) and ongoing conversations in the field (Rietveld, Slob, and Thurik, 2020).…”