What Determines the Geography of Entrepreneurship? A Comparative Study Between Sub-Saharan Africa and South-East Asia

Abstract

There is a clear disparity between different regions of the world regarding the type and number of entrepreneurs. These differences are most prominent between low-income regions like Africa and middle- to high-income regions such as South-East Asia. Thirty years ago, Asian and African countries were at similar stages of development, but today their difference in entrepreneurship and economic development is massive, which makes them intriguing cases to compare. To investigate the extent of this and explain why it happens, this study identifies the main influences on entrepreneurial activity, according to entrepreneurship ecosystem (EE) theory and knowledge spillover theory. Making use of multivariate analysis of variance, the most prominent factors responsible for the difference in entrepreneurship capacity in the regions were found to be technology development, political situation and the quality of public institutions. South-East Asia provides these to a sufficient degree thereby giving rise to a healthy EE, while Africa’s ability to build this infrastructure is still in its embryonic stage. This study’s efficacy is to inform on possible policies that low- and middle-income nations can follow to build entrepreneurship in their current economic situations, as well as to expand EE theory in the underexplored context of developing countries.

Is Entrepreneurship the Key to Achieving Environmental Sustainability? A Data-Driven Analysis from the Asia-Pacific Region

“…Meanwhile, entrepreneurship activities in low-and lower-middle-income countries with lower economic development and less developed economic infrastructure may not be feasible with hightechnology businesses. Instead, entrepreneurs in these countries may focus on manufacturing activities or even natural resource exploitation, without much consideration for the environment [82], resulting in high emissions.…”

Validation of Decision Criteria and Determining Factors Importance in Advocating for Sustainability of Entrepreneurial Startups towards Social Inclusion and Capacity Building

“…Nevertheless, the right information about determinants can create a system to plan for future startups. Entrepreneurial startups are based on three constituents; first is the entrepreneur [15,16], second is the government/non-government supports [17], and the third is the geographical region [18,19]. Understanding these three dimensions and their impact can be an evolution for shaping startups to be sustainable [20].…”