Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to extend the literature on entrepreneurship and corruption by examining the link between productive and unproductive entrepreneurial activities as moderated by economic freedom. Specifically, the authors hypothesize that various aspects of economic freedom are contextual in their moderating effects, so that what matters in terms of economic freedom will depend on other factors such as levels of human capital.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors test these hypotheses by incorporating aggregated and disaggregated measures from the Economic Freedom of the World into a model of international entrepreneurial activity.
Findings
The results indicate that not only is economic freedom a major determinant of the level of entrepreneurial activity across countries, as previously verified, but that it also moderates the relationship between human capital, corruption, and productive entrepreneurship.
Originality/value
These findings resolve many of the ambiguities previously identified in the literature on the link between corruption, entrepreneurship, and growth.
This paper explores the connection between discrimination and entrepreneurship. To pursue this inquiry we focus on the integration of black players in Major League Baseball (MLB). MLB team owners, acting as entrepreneurs, had to weigh the benefits of integrating versus the costs of alienating consumers who had a taste for discrimination against hiring blacks. We find that the owners whose teams could profit by contending for the league pennant with the addition of black players were the ones who were willing to take the risk of integrating, although integration often stood in contrast to revealed consumer preferences. In addition to illuminating the mechanism through which integration took place, we offer a general understanding of how the costs and benefits associated with consumers' taste for discrimination can change via entrepreneurial activities.
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