The Spatial Dimension of Entrepreneurship: Stylized Facts for the Case of Austria

Abstract

Austria and other European countries are striving to increase the level of entrepreneurial activities to create jobs and income in the aftermath of the Great Recession. The aim of this contribution is to establish stylized empirical facts about regional entrepreneurial activities in Austria. The methodology rests upon a spatial data analysis, the main results of which demonstrate a decline in entrepreneurial activities in the last decade, with a stable pattern of spatial distribution of new ventures and high-growth firms. Overall, our empirical findings point to a number of stylized facts questioning whether entrepreneurship is able to deliver all the proposed miracles policy-makers hope for. In line with the literature in regional economics and entrepreneurship research, our findings suggest persistent interregional differences between the intensity of regional entrepreneurial activities, a higher prevalence of entrepreneurial activity among core regions and a higher concentration of venture capital investments, as compared to innovation and entrepreneurial activities in general.

Keywords

• spatial data analysis
• entrepreneurial activities
• unemployment
• venture capital
• spatial concentration
• public policy