Influence of national and regional level social capital on entrepreneurial activity

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate the influence that national levels of social capital have on entrepreneurial activity. Specifically, we argue that national and regional level social capital positively influences the ability of entrepreneurs to mobilize and access important resources thereby positively impacting the rate of entrepreneurship within nations and regions.Design/methodology/approachWe advance a multilevel and multidimensional conceptualization of social capital. Then based on a dataset of 68 nations and 665 within-nation regions, we empirically evaluate the effects of social capital at the national and regional level in explaining differences in entrepreneurial activity across nations and regions using a combination of regression analysis and multilevel hierarchical linear modeling (HLM).FindingsOur findings emphasize the importance of formulating a multilevel conceptualization of social capital for entrepreneurship research. We discuss the results, provide implications for public policy and suggest avenues for future research.Originality/valueThe overwhelming majority of entrepreneurship research focused on investigating the implications of social capital reside at the individual level of analysis. Our unique inquiry is an inaugural effort to consider this important implications at the macro and meso-level of analysis by examining both regional and national-level effects.

Institutional channeling and opportunity recognition: heterogeneous knowledge corridors as pathways to social entrepreneurship

“…This article highlights that previous efforts at addressing this issue were predominantly centered at the micro-level of analysis and focus on individual entrepreneurs' identities (Wry and York, 2011), personality traits (Dacin et al, 2011;Dhesi, 2010;Hemingway, 2005;Koe and Shamuganathan, 2010;Patzelt and Shepherd, 2011;Roberts and Woods, 2005;Tan et al, 2005) and social networks (Marshall, 2011). Although these studies have shed light on important facets of opportunity recognition, they fail to provide a satisfactory explanation of recent insights from entrepreneurship scholars revealing systematic patterns of (social) entrepreneurial opportunity recognition among various communities, groups, cultures or (sub)national regions (Bogatyreva et al, 2019;Cox et al, 2022;Dheer, 2017Dheer, , 2018. Such patterns remain a mystery to the extent that researchers focus on stochastically distributed personality traits or entrepreneurial identifications as their preferred explanation of successful opportunity recognition.…”

“…That is, why would opportunity recognition and exploitation be systematically more (or less) likely among various communities, groups, cultures or geographies? Some recent research has started revealing that such patterns do indeed manifest, with studies showing opportunity recognition varying among cultural groups (Bogatyreva et al , 2019; Dheer, 2017), immigrant groups (Dheer, 2018) and national and sub-national regions (Cox et al , 2022). While this research has broadly focused on the relative presence of necessary resources and infrastructure in driving opportunity recognition (Wurth et al , 2022), we argue that another likely explanation lies in the plurality of the institutional environment potential entrepreneurs are socialized into, and the knowledge these institutions activate, which we begin exploring below.…”