The Quality of Entrepreneurial Activity and Economic Competitiveness in European Union Countries: A Panel Data Approach

Abstract

To increase competitiveness, a country has to outperform its competitors in terms of research and innovation, entrepreneurship, competition, and education. In this paper, we aim to test the relationship between the quality of entrepreneurial activity and the economic competitiveness for the European Union countries by using panel data estimation techniques. Our research considers a sample of 28 EU countries over the period 2011–2017. For the empirical investigation we apply panel data regression models. The results obtained show that business, macroeconomic environment and the quality of entrepreneurship are significant determinants of economic competitiveness of EU countries. Thus, we identify significant positive relations between innovation rate, inflation rate, FDI and economic competitiveness, and significant negative relations between expectations regarding job creation, tax rate, costs and competitiveness. Our study completes the literature by analyzing the relationship between the quality of entrepreneurship and the competitiveness of countries, for an extensive sample formed by all the 28 countries members of the European Union for a period of seven recent years.

Business Dynamism and Innovation Capacity, an Entrepreneurship Worldwide Perspective

“…No studies were found that relate these two variables. However, some authors indicate that there is a negative relationship between high job creation expectations and economic competitiveness [72,73].…”

Categorization of the EU Member States in the Context of Selected Multicriteria International Indices Using Cluster Analysis

“…The authors explored how the selected HDI, ESHDI and EPI indexes reflect developments in the cyclical economy, which has only recently become one of the approaches to achieving sustainable development and is primarily linked to its economic and environmental aspects. The importance of multicriterial analysis in the context of increasing the countries' economic prosperity was also confirmed by Rusu and Dornean (2019). The authors were focused on investigating the selected economic areas such as competitiveness, innovations, and macroeconomic environment.…”

Do emerging ecosystems and individual capitals matter in entrepreneurial re-entry’ quality and speed?

“…This means that potential re-entrepreneurs respond differently because the opportunity cost of those that are not employed (by necessity) differs from those that are exploring a new business opportunity (by opportunity). The quality of entrepreneurship is a relevant factor that explains the growth of a country's competitiveness (Cardon et al 2011;Guerrero and Peña-Legazkue 2019;Henrekson and Sanandaji 2019;Rusu and Dornean 2019). On the other hand, environmental conditions also determine the re-entry speed after a business failure (Guerrero and Peña-Legazkue 2019).…”

“…As a consequence, the type their entrepreneurial initiatives also vary depending on social capital (Cope 2011;Henrekson and Sanandaji 2019). The quality and the speed of a new venture depends on the entrepreneur's relationships with family (Khelil 2016;Lin and Wang 2019), potential investors (Henrekson and Sanandaji 2019), mentors, and agents of entrepreneurial ecosystems (Rusu and Dornean 2019). Social partners also contribute with elements for an accelerated/retarded re-entry (Baù et al 2017).…”