Comparison of perceived barriers to entrepreneurship in Eastern and Western European countries

Tatiana A. Iakovleva, Lars Kolvereid, Marjan J. Gorgievski and Øystein Sørhaug

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management, 2014, vol. 18, issue 2/3, 115-133

Abstract: This qualitative study among 591 business students from four European countries investigated cross-country differences in the kind of barriers people perceive to business start-up. In line with institutional theory, the most important perceived barriers in all countries related to regulative structures (lack of money) and cognitive conditions (lack of skills). Normative structures, defined as national culture, did not explain cross-country differences in perceived risk as start-up barrier. In Norway and The Netherlands, students reported risk perceptions more often than in Romania and Russia, whereas the latter countries are known to be more uncertainty avoidant. These results aid in developing a theory of entrepreneurial barriers, which could be used to extend current entrepreneurial intentions theories in order to predict actual start-up behaviour better. Concerning practical implications, results indicate that business start-up can be stimulated through improving regulative and cognitive institutional structures, but national differences need to be taken into account.

Keywords: entrepreneurship barriers; entrepreneurial intentions; business start-ups; institutional theory; regulative structures; institutions; normative structures; cognitive conditions; cross-cultural comparison; uncertainty avoidance; developing countries; qualitative research; Europe; Eastern European; Western European. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=62874 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:ijeima:v:18:y:2014:i:2/3:p:115-133

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management from Inderscience Enterprises Ltd
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sarah Parker ().