Title: Regional determinants of technology entrepreneurship

Authors: Jianhong Xue, Peter G. Klein

Addresses: College of Economics and Management, Northwest A&F University, 3 Taicheng Road, Yangling, Shaanxi, 712100, China. ' Division of Applied Social Sciences, University of Missouri, 135D Mumford Hall, Columbia, MO 65211, USA

Abstract: We explore the regional determinants of entrepreneurial activity with latent variables framework in which entrepreneurship is not observed directly, but manifested in activities such as producing patentable innovations, receiving venture funding and establishing new enterprises. We find that R&D expenditures, the presence of anchor firms, good (small) government and the availability of intellectual-property lawyers are positively associated with entrepreneurial activity, while the numbers of scientists, the presence of anchor universities and other measures of the political environment do not have statistically significant effects. We argue more generally for the benefits of treating entrepreneurship as a latent construct.

Keywords: technology entrepreneurship; economic growth; latent variables models; technopreneurship; regional determinants; entrepreneurial activity; technoentrepreneurship.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEV.2010.030978

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Venturing, 2010 Vol.1 No.3, pp.291 - 308

Published online: 15 Jan 2010 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article