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Hierarchy and conservatism in the contributions of resources to entrepreneurial activity

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Abstract

This study addresses the relationship between the munificence offered by a country’s proximate institutions in terms of a critical financial resource (informal investments) and human resource (entrepreneurship education) and its early-stage entrepreneurial activity. We also examine how this relationship might be moderated by underlying cultural values. Our main thesis is that the positive effects of resource munificence of proximate institutions on early-stage entrepreneurial activity should be attenuated in countries with a more hierarchical and conservative culture. We test our hypotheses using a multi-source dataset that spans 42 countries.

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Notes

  1. Consistent with previous research (Levie and Autio 2008; Reynolds et al. 2005), we conceive of early-stage entrepreneurial activities as those that take place in either the period before the actual launch of a venture (nascent activity) or the initial years after the launch (new business activity).

  2. The third dimension of Schwartz’s framework (harmony vs. mastery) pertains to how people perceive their place in the natural and social world in general—including the extent to which they emphasize their fit with the surrounding world (Schwartz 1994, 1999)—rather than how underlying conventions guide the distribution of resources among actors. As such, there is no theoretical reason to expect this dimension to influence the distribution of resources among actors or moderate the relationship between a country’s resource munificence and early-stage entrepreneurial activity. An unreported, post-hoc analysis confirmed this expectation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Goodman School of Business, Brock University, St. Catharines, Canada

    Dirk De Clercq & Dominic S. K. Lim

  2. Beedie School of Business, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada

    Chang Hoon Oh

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  1. Dirk De Clercq
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  2. Dominic S. K. Lim
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  3. Chang Hoon Oh
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Correspondence to Dirk De Clercq.

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The authors contributed equally to the manuscript and are listed alphabetically.

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De Clercq, D., Lim, D.S.K. & Oh, C.H. Hierarchy and conservatism in the contributions of resources to entrepreneurial activity. Small Bus Econ 42, 507–522 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-013-9515-7

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