Using high-potential firms as the key to achieving territorial development

This study examines which entrepreneurial antecedents like education, gender, motivation, and age; and environmental variables like citizen insecurity enable high-potential firms to establish themselves and act as the key to territorial development. The inclusion of the variable citizen insecurity is unusual, but several authors note how a violent context can affect entrepreneurial activity in Latin America. Insecurity generates massive expenses for entrepreneurs, who must invest to protect themselves against violence and cover the extraordinary expenses arising from this violence. The data analysis technique is fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), a powerful technique for analyzing complex causal relationships. The results highlight that policies should focus on reducing levels of citizen insecurity, among others, to lead to the creation of high-potential firms in countries similar to El Salvador.