Iceland took first place in INSEAD’s Global Innovation Index (PDF) this year. Last year it won an award for best entrepreneurship movement. Iceland’s strengths, therefore, in entrepreneurship and innovation could help the country recover from its recent banking collapse. Read more at the Policy Dialogue on Entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurship is becoming more popular in Brazil, despite the relative difficulty of starting a business there and the complexity of the country’s tax system.
Read more about the conditions driving Brazil’s entrepreneurship boom at the Policy Dialogue on Entrepreneurship Blog.
And not only that, Brazil has the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016.
The Kauffman Foundation published the findings from their study, “Are Women Entrepreneurs Different From Men?” The researchers asked successful, high growth male and female entrepreneurs what factors they believe led to their success. Some the key factors that female entrepreneurs valued more highly than males were professional and personal networks and support.
Two weeks ago, the Policy Dialogue on Entrepreneurship explored entrepreneurship in Turkey. Now Jonathan Ortmans looks at Saudi Arabia and finds a very entrepreneurial country. For example, it is ranked number 13 out of 183 economies for “ease of starting a business” (the U.S. is number 8).
The Kauffman Foundation’s Policy Dialogue on Entrepreneurship has a fascinating article on entrepreneurship in Turkey. Why, asks author Jonathan Ortmans, does Turkey have such a low rate of entrepreneurship when it is so strong economically?
An interesting paper published this summer by Vivek Wadhwa et al.: “Anatomy of an Entrepreneur: Family Background and Motivation.”
The paper’s abstract:
“Entrepreneurs are among the most celebrated people in our culture. Celebrity entrepreneurs such as Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, often grace the covers of prominent publications. These company founders and innovators fuel economic growth and give the nation its competitive edge.
“However, very little is known today about the backgrounds, life histories, motivations and beliefs of these entrepreneurs. So myths and stereotypes prevail. The commonly held belief is that entrepreneurs are young, lightly-educated, childless unmarried workaholics. They are perceived to come from rich families and graduate from elite colleges.
“But is this true?
“This research answers some of these questions. This is based on a survey of 549 company founders in 12 high-growth industries.
“It finds that most founders came from middle-class or upper-lower-class backgrounds, are well-educated and married with children. The strongest motivation for starting a company was to ‘build wealth.’ Other popular motivators included capitalizing on a business idea; the appeal of a startup culture; a desire to own a company; and a lack of interest in working for someone else.”
Here’s the link to the paper at the Social Science Research Network.
The 2008 State New Economy Index, a project of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, ranks Massachusetts, Washington, Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey highest in terms of their ability to “effectively compete nationally and globally.” The index evaluates states based on indicators in five categories: knowledge jobs, globalization, economic dynamism, transformation to a digital economy, and technological innovation capacity.
