Entrepreneurship, institutions and economic development : a configurational approach.
This thesis responds to calls for more advanced portrayals of institutional effects on cross-country opportunity entrepreneurial activity (EA). In particular, it examines the effect of formal institutional development on EA depending on differences in informal constraints and economic development (ED). Though acknowledged in part within extant theory, little empirical research has documented the simultaneous interaction of all of the three variables in formal and informal institutions and ED. This research offers one perspective on the interdependencies and directionality between these variables. I suggest that a country's entrepreneurs respond differently to formal institutional incentives depending on societal culture and the nature of opportunities that arise from the predominant economic structure whether agriculturally, manufacturing or services based. I also develop an operational framework to translate institutions to conditions for EA. This framework suggests that formal institutions are associated with entrepreneurial opportunities and incentives, financial capital and an explicit form of human capital such as formal education. In addition, informal institutions are associated with social capital and a tacit form of human capital such as practical experience.
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