IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/entreg/v20y2008i2p111-124.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Regional determinants of entrepreneurial start-ups in a developing country

Author

Listed:
  • Wim Naudé
  • Thomas Gries
  • Eric Wood
  • Aloe Meintjies

Abstract

In this paper we use data from a developing country, South Africa, to empirically identify the determinants of start-up rates across different sub-national regions and in particular to investigate the role of access to finance on a regional (sub-national) level on start-ups. We find that the most important determinants of start-up rates across South Africa's magisterial districts are profit rates, educational levels, agglomeration as measured by the economic size of a district, and access to formal bank finance. Profits have by far the strongest effect on start-up rates. This, together with the insignificance of unemployment for start-ups, may imply that start-ups in South Africa are mainly opportunity-driven, as opposed to being necessity driven. It is also found that access to formal bank finance matter for regional start-up rates, which is not typical for a developing country and that market-size (agglomerations) is negatively associated with start-up rates in South Africa--an unexpected finding which may imply the existence of ‘congesting' factors such as increased competition, tougher barriers to entry, monopolistic behaviour, and a greater difficulty to be innovative and novel.

Suggested Citation

  • Wim Naudé & Thomas Gries & Eric Wood & Aloe Meintjies, 2008. "Regional determinants of entrepreneurial start-ups in a developing country," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(2), pages 111-124, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:entreg:v:20:y:2008:i:2:p:111-124
    DOI: 10.1080/08985620701631498
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/08985620701631498
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/08985620701631498?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jean Bonnet & Sylvie Cieply & Marcus Dejardin, 2005. "Financial constraints on new firms: looking for regional disparities," Brussels Economic Review, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles, vol. 48(3), pages 217-246.
    2. Erik Stam, 2007. "Why Butterflies Don’t Leave: Locational Behavior of Entrepreneurial Firms," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 83(1), pages 27-50, January.
    3. André Stel & Kashifa Suddle, 2008. "The impact of new firm formation on regional development in the Netherlands," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 30(1), pages 31-47, January.
    4. Kaivan Munshi, 2007. "From Farming to International Business: The Social Auspices of Entrepreneurship in a Growing Economy," NBER Working Papers 13065, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Thomas Gries & Wim Naudé, 2008. "Entrepreneurship and Regional Economic Growth: Towards A General Theory of Start-Ups," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2008-70, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    2. Sierdjan Koster & Lianne Hans, 2017. "History Repeating! Spatial Dynamics in Dutch Start-Up Rates (1996–2013)," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 108(2), pages 250-257, April.
    3. Stuetzer, Michael & Obschonka, Martin & Audretsch, David B. & Wyrwich, Michael & Rentfrow, Peter J. & Coombes, Mike & Shaw-Taylor, Leigh & Satchell, Max, 2016. "Industry structure, entrepreneurship, and culture: An empirical analysis using historical coalfields," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 52-72.
    4. Fritsch, Michael, 2013. "New Business Formation and Regional Development: A Survey and Assessment of the Evidence," Foundations and Trends(R) in Entrepreneurship, now publishers, vol. 9(3), pages 249-364, February.
    5. Michael Wyrwich, 2014. "Ready, set, go! Why are some regions entrepreneurial jump starters?," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 53(2), pages 487-513, September.
    6. Michael Fritsch & Alexandra Schroeter, 2011. "Why does the effect of new business formation differ across regions?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 36(4), pages 383-400, May.
    7. Ismaëlh Cissé & Jean Dubé & Cédric Brunelle, 2020. "New business location: how local characteristics influence individual location decision?," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 64(1), pages 185-214, February.
    8. Heike Delfmann & Sierdjan Koster & Philip McCann & Jouke Van Dijk, 2014. "Population Change and New Firm Formation in Urban and Rural Regions," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(6), pages 1034-1050, June.
    9. Michael Fritsch, 2011. "The effect of new business formation on regional development - Empirical evidence, interpretation, and avenues for further research," Jena Economics Research Papers 2011-006, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    10. Qi Guo & Canfei He & Deyu Li, 2016. "Entrepreneurship in China: The role of localisation and urbanisation economies," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 53(12), pages 2584-2606, September.
    11. Erik Stam & Roy Thurik & Peter van der Zwan, 2010. "Entrepreneurial exit in real and imagined markets," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 19(4), pages 1109-1139, August.
    12. Francesco Quatraro & Marco Vivarelli, 2015. "Drivers of Entrepreneurship and Post-entry Performance of Newborn Firms in Developing Countries," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 30(2), pages 277-305.
    13. Yilin Dong, 2020. "Determinants of entry: Evidence from new manufacturing firms in the U.S," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(4), pages 1542-1561, December.
    14. repec:rri:wpaper:200902 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Niklas Elert, 2014. "What determines entry? Evidence from Sweden," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 53(1), pages 55-92, August.
    16. Burhan Can Karahasan, 2014. "The Spatial Distribution Of New Firms:Can Peripheral Areas Escape From The Curse Of Remoteness?," Romanian Journal of Regional Science, Romanian Regional Science Association, vol. 8(2), pages 1-28, DECEMBER.
    17. Pu Liu & Yingying Shao, 2022. "Innovation and new business formation: the role of innovative large firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 59(2), pages 691-720, August.
    18. Andersson, Martin & Noseleit, Florian, 2008. "Start-Ups and Employment Growth - Evidence from Sweden," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 155, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies.
    19. Ron Boschma & Ron Martin, 2010. "The Aims and Scope of Evolutionary Economic Geography," Chapters, in: Ron Boschma & Ron Martin (ed.), The Handbook of Evolutionary Economic Geography, chapter 1, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    20. Wim Naudé, 2007. "Peace, Prosperity, and Pro-Growth Entrepreneurship," WIDER Working Paper Series DP2007-02, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    21. Backman, Mikaela & Karlsson, Charlie, 2013. "Who says life is over after 55? Entrepreneurship and an aging population," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 325, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:entreg:v:20:y:2008:i:2:p:111-124. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/TEPN20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.