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Entrepreneurial activity and regional competitiveness: an introduction to the special issue

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Abstract

An important goal of this special issue is to gain a better understanding of the linkage between the entrepreneurial activity of a region and its level of competitiveness. Comparative studies across countries abound in the literature, but much still remains to be investigated on the role played by entrepreneurship in transforming local economies. The set of papers included in this special issue aims to fill this conceptual and empirical gap. In general, besides acknowledging the existence of a bi-directional relationship between entrepreneurship and regional competitiveness, the papers shed some light on the endogenous process of wealth creation in local economies.

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Acknowledgments

Iñaki Peña wants to thank the Education, Universities and Research Department of the Basque Government for the financial support granted to the Workshop “Entrepreneurial Activity and Regional Competitiveness” organized by the Basque Institute of Competitiveness and the Max Planck Institute of Economics, and held in San Sebastian, Spain, on June 18–19th, 2009.

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Correspondence to Iñaki Peña-Legazkue.

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Audretsch, D.B., Peña-Legazkue, I. Entrepreneurial activity and regional competitiveness: an introduction to the special issue. Small Bus Econ 39, 531–537 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-011-9328-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-011-9328-5

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