entrepreneurship and postmaterialistic values. an...
TRANSCRIPT
ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND POSTMATERIALISTIC VALUES. An individual-based analysis
Author: Carlos Emilio Morales
ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND POSTMATERIALISTIC VALUES. AN INDIVIDUAL-BASED ANALYSIS
ABSTRACT
Research theme and hypothesis. From Schumpeter right up to today research on
entrepreneurship has mainly demonstrated that entrepreneurs constitute a key factor in a
country's economic development, in creating employment and in innovation. However, there is
still no definitive answer to the question: What makes a person an entrepreneur? The
hypothesis of this study is based on the tenet that materialistic people seek material security
and that postmaterialistic people seek to satisfy needs such as independence and fulfilling
personal objectives in life and that for this reason the latter tend to set up less companies than
the materialists. Hypothesis: People who are more postmaterialistic tend to start up less
companies than people who are more materialistic.
Data. A model was drawn up to explore the predictive capacity of postmaterialism in
entrepreneurship at the individual level. The measure of postmaterialism was taken from
Inglehart's 4-item postmaterialism index. The model uses the socio demographic variables of
age, gender, education and income level as control variables. Data from about twenty thousand
subjects from 25 OECD countries is used in the 1999-2004 database of the World Value Survey
to measure all these variables.
Results. Results were obtained using logistic regression. There is significant statistical
evidence that postmaterialism decreases a person´s likelihood of becoming an entrepreneur,
although its impact varies depending on the country and on the variables incorporated into the
models.
Key words: Postmaterialism, Values, Entrepreneurship, World Value Survey
INTRODUCTION
The study of human values — and their change patterns — has been a
recurrent subject in the sociological literature of the last fifty years. Values have
gained central importance in academic discussions regarding societal
behaviour, as they have been considered by theorists as deeply rooted,
abstract motivations that guide, justify and explain attitudes, norms, opinions
and actions (Rokeach 1973, Feather 1975, Schwartz 1992, Halman and de
Moor 1994). A solid understanding of the place values occupy in today’s
sociological discussions is a necessary condition for any theory dealing with
human development in the 21st century.
One of the predominant theories regarding changing trends in values in
advanced industrial societies is the theory developed by Ronald Inglehart. The
theory is known as postmaterialism or postmaterialistic values theory. Already
in 1971, Inglehart suggested that a transformation in the political culture of
advanced industrial societies may be taking place, a transformation that “seems
to be altering the basic value priorities of given generations as a result of
changing conditions influencing their basic socialization” (Inglehart 1971, p.
991). The effects of postmaterialism, as it will be explained later, have been
studied in relation with different fields. However its relation to entrepreneurship
is not properly known.
Many of the studies on entrepreneurship coincide on a number of points about
the state of the art of entrepreneurship research: First of all, there is no agreed
definition of entrepreneurship. Wennekers et al. (2005) counted 12 different
definitions of entrepreneurship just from the economics literature. This disarray
is closely related to the multi-faceted nature of entrepreneurship as a
phenomenon. This means that entrepreneurship is a social phenomenon
observed at various levels and that it displays different properties in each of
these levels. Starting from the individual level, entrepreneurship is observed at
the firm, regional, industrial and national level (Davidsson 2004). The second
point about entrepreneurship literature in general is the use of various
disciplines in the research. This is a natural corollary of the multi-faceted nature
of entrepreneurship. An array of academic disciplines ranging from economics,
management science and organization studies, to sociology and social
psychology, to name the major ones, have all been employed in
entrepreneurship research (Beugelsdijk 2007). The third property of
entrepreneurship research is related to this second point. There are a multitude
of perspectives on entrepreneurship. Some studies deal with the origins or
sources of entrepreneurship whereas others deal with the effects of
entrepreneurship on economic development and still others look at the
managerial implications of entrepreneurship. After multiplying this number of
perspectives with the large number of different disciplines, researchers are led
to the conclusion that there is still no well developed theory of entrepreneurship
(Ritchie and Brindley 2005). It means that consensus has not been achieved in
specifying the entrepreneurship determinants, neither at the individual nor at the
socio-cultural level. In this paper we contribute to this debate by analyzing the
potential relationship between the entrepreneurial phenomenon and cultural
values. Following the still unanswered question: “What makes an
entrepreneur?”, the main objective of this paper is to analyze the potential
predictive role that postmaterialism has on entrepreneurship.
The paper is structured as follows: First, a review of the literature on
entrepreneurship, values and postmaterialism will be presented. Then, the
methodology section goes on to outline the data used, the measurements,
sample information and the analytical techniques employed in the study. This is
followed by a presentation of the main results, which aims to offer its own
particular contribution to the relationship between postmaterialism and
entrepreneurship. The paper then ends with a discussion of the findings and
conclusions.
LITERATURE REVIEW
1. The Relationship between Values and EntrepreneurshipIn recent decades entrepreneurship has been increasingly recognized as a
crucial factor in processes of economic development in nations. At the moment
there seems to be a broad consensus that entrepreneurs play an important role
in the generation of employment and the creation of wealth (Muhanna 2007,
Brunet & Alarcón 2004). This has led to a growing interest among researchers
on examining the main determinants of nascent entrepreneurship and the
entrepreneurial behaviour of individuals, cultures and nations.
It was economic theory that accorded entrepreneurship its deserved importance
in the first place. Schumpeter had already described the entrepreneur as an
active, dynamic element, capable of breaking the routine in market economies
(Schumpeter 1934). Followers of the Schumpeterian approach to growth have
suggested the key role entrepreneurial dynamism could have in innovation and
growth (Aghion and Hewitt, 1997). Other widely cited authors have agreed on
the importance of the entrepreneur as a determining figure in a market
economy, be it as an agent for providing inputs to the system (Leibenstein
1968), distinguishing opportunities (Kirzner 1973) or diminishing uncertainty
(Knight 1921).
Previous studies mostly concentrated on the enterprise as the unit of analysis,
and only a few paid particular attention to the characteristics of entrepreneurs
as individuals or to entrepreneurship as a concept. This has changed lately,
however: the role of entrepreneurs has today acquired its due importance in
academic research, and this has led to the emergence of a whole body of
research dealing with “entrepreneurship” as a field of study (Brunet & Alarcón
2004).
1.1 Determinants of entrepreneurship When looking at the main determinants of entrepreneurship, three distinct
perspectives have been emphasized: the role of institutions, the role of social
networks and the role of personal characteristics (Muhanna 2007). While all
three perspectives seem relevant, there is no clear consensus in social
sciences on the determinants of entrepreneurship. Some authors have found
particularly strong effects of social networks (Muhanna 2007), some sociologists
have long emphasized the role of individual values in promoting or discouraging
entrepreneurial activities (Cochran 1971), while others have argued that
differences in value systems and cultural orientations play a key role in
entrepreneurship rates (Illeris 1986, Thomas and Mueller 2000), others again
have concentrated on the roles of personality, origins, and labour experiences
(Carland et. al. 1984), and yet others have emphasized resources such as
human, social, financial and organizational capital (Cooper et al. 1994).
A similar strategy which has been widely used to approach the study of the
determinants of entrepreneurial activity has been to distinguish between an
“individual” dimension (entrepreneur’s actions, psychological traits) and a
“structural” dimension (institutionally, socially, culturally, ideologically and
politically based factors). Most researchers have focused on the external (or
“structural”) conditions of entrepreneurship and their influence on the formation
of new enterprises (Keeble & Walker 1994), their survival (Romanelli 1986), the
competition strategies they develop (Zahra 1996), or improvements in their
functioning (Covin & Slevin 1989), among other topics. But, according to other
scholars, these views may offer incomplete pictures for understanding
entrepreneurial behaviour. The argument behind this is that both dimensions
are necessary for a complete understanding of the determinants behind the
entrepreneurial function, and if only one dimension is taken into account, the
understanding will be deficient (Brunet & Alarcón 2004, Van de Ven 1993).
Studies have described how rates of entrepreneurship show strong and
persistent differences across nations (Van Stel 2005). These cross-national
differences in rates of entrepreneurial nascence have been explained by a wide
range of economic, technological, demographic, cultural and institutional factors
(Verheul et al. 2002, Wennekers, 2006). Some authors have argued that these
differences are related to levels of economic development, in addition to
demographic, cultural and institutional characteristics (Blanchflower 2000). But
the relative stability of differences in entrepreneurial activity across countries
and over time suggests that factors other than economic ones are at play (Grilo
and Thurik 2005).
The findings in the field are diverse. Some authors have found there is a
positive relationship between education and entrepreneurship, that is,
individuals with a higher educational level will show a higher level of
entrepreneurial behaviour (Wang and Wong, 2004). There are studies,
however, that associate informal entrepreneurship and self-employment with
low educational levels (Gong & Soest 2002). For others, entrepreneurship is
strongly associated with having a family background of entrepreneurs and being
in a social circle with many entrepreneurs, highlighting the importance of the
social environment and social effects in the entrepreneurship direction
(Muhanna 2007). Entrepreneurial attitudes have also been measured in terms
of preferences for self-employment as well as in actual self-employment. In this
sense, it has been shown that country-specific (cultural) variables seem to
explain the preference for entrepreneurship, but cannot explain actual
entrepreneurship (Freytag & Thurik 2007). It has also been argued that
individual characteristics play an important role in the choice of whether or not
to become an entrepreneur, and that confidence in starting one’s own business
is boosted by having entrepreneurs in one’s family and among one’s friends
(Muhanna 2007). In many other dimensions entrepreneurs and non-
entrepreneurs share similar values, for instance in terms of believing that family,
friends, leisure time, religion, service to others, financial security, health and
freedom are important (Muhanna 2007). Moreover, no real exogenous
differences in trust among entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs have been
found (Muhanna 2007).
1.2 Values as determinants of entrepreneurship Extensive research in social sciences has shown links between sets of values,
beliefs, attitudes and behaviour. It could be argued, then, that differences in
culture, in which individual values and beliefs are embedded, may have an
influence in a wide range of behaviours, including the decision to become an
entrepreneur (Mueller and Thomas 2001). In this line, several studies have
explored the relationship between various aspects of culture and
entrepreneurial behaviour across nations and over time (Noorderhaven et al.
2004, Mueller & Thomas 2001, Busenitz et al. 2000, Lee & Peterson 2000,
Tiessen 1997, Davidsson 1995, McGrath & MacMillan 1992, Huisman 1985).
Three types of explanations have been used along this line (Wennekers 2006).
The first argues the existence of certain values closely related with
entrepreneurship, and thus suggests that if the presence of these values is high
in a particular society, the probability of higher levels of entrepreneurship will
increase (Uhlaner and Thurik 2007). In this line, important contributions have
been made by Davidsson (1995) and Davidsson and Wiklund (1997), who have
studied the relationship between the individual’s values and beliefs and
entrepreneurial behaviour and intention in six structurally different clusters of
regions. The second view puts forward the argument that the higher the degree
of ‘moral approval’ of entrepreneurship, the more entrepreneurs will exist in a
given society (Etzioni 1987). The third explanation argues that in a non-
entrepreneurial culture, a clash of values between potential entrepreneurs and
the population as a whole may drive the former to higher level of self-
employment (Noorderhaven et al. 2004, Baum et al. 1993).
When it comes to the findings, these are again diverse. Some authors have
found a positive relationship between certain cultural values, informal social
networks and federal aid and entrepreneurship (Valencia de Lara et al 2007).
Suddle et al. (2007) developed a composite measure of entrepreneurial culture
using McClelland’s (1961) Need for Achievement, Lynn’s (1991)
competitiveness index, Granato et al.’s (1996) achievement motivation index,
and GLOBE’s performance orientation index 1 (Javidan 2004). They found their
measure to be significantly and positively related to nascent entrepreneurship,
when controlling for economic, demographic and institutional factors. Other
findings have argued that individualistic values exert a positive and direct
influence on entrepreneurial behaviour, while the presence of significant intra-
cultural distances implies the need to assume a multiple cultural perspective
when studying differences in entrepreneurial behaviour (Garcia-Cabrera &
Garcia Soto 2008).
An interesting alternative slant on the matter has been introduced by means of
applying the values model developed by Shalom Schwartz to the study of
entrepreneurial conduct. Initially, Schwartz derives from theory ten motivational
1 See also http://www.thunderbird.edu/wwwfiles/ms/globe/
types of values from three universal requirements: needs of individuals as
biological organisms, requisites of coordinated social interaction, and
requirements for the smooth functioning and survival of groups. Schwartz
claims exhaustiveness of this set of ten basic value types; “It is possible to
classify virtually all the items found in lists of specific values from different
cultures (…) into one of these ten motivational types of values” (Schwartz 1994,
pp. 22-23). These single values can be classified in a circular structure (see Fig.
1), where the closer the values are in either direction around the circle, the more
positive the relationship between them, and thus, the more distant they are, the
more negative their interrelationship. This circular structure is then situated in a
two-dimensional scale (individualism vs. collectivism), where the axes are
labelled “Self-enhancement – Self-transcendence” and “Conservation –
Openness to Change” (Schwartz, 1994; 2007).
Figure 1. Schwartz’s theoretical model of relations among motivational types of
values
Departing from Schwartz’s theoretical framework, Moriano et al. (2001) reflect
on the possibilities this standpoint brings to the study of entrepreneurial
behaviour. The research is conducted by comparing the differences in means
for types of values and the specific values between a group of entrepreneur
subjects and another non-entrepreneur group. Their results show that
significant differences exist, both in the types of values and in the specific
values of the two groups, suggesting that entrepreneurs are inspired by more
individualistic values (Moriano et. al 2001). More specifically, these authors
found that their sample’s answers to a “being an entrepreneur” item they
introduced into their study, correlated significantly and positively with four of the
five individualistic types of values suggested by Schwartz: power, achievement,
self-direction and stimulation. This led them to conclude that “being an
entrepreneur” would be situated within the individualistic dimension in
Schwartz’s scheme. Other findings reinforce that entrepreneurship correlates
positively with power and achievement and, in general, with individualistic
values (McGrath 1992).
Valencia de Lara et al. (2007) contribute to the perspective with an interesting
approach, in which they link Schumpeterian economic theory and Schwartz’s
approach to the study of values in their relationship to entrepreneurship.
According to these authors, Schumpeter had already stated that the
entrepreneurial behaviour of the individual does not lie in hedonism but in a
desire for social power, independence, personal achievement, and in an
adventurous nature and creativity (Schumpeter 1934); all are factors compatible
with Schwartz’s individualistic value categories: power, achievement,
stimulation and self-direction.
In their study, Valencia de Lara et al. depart from the idea that individualistic
and ‘mixed’ values will have a positive relationship with the rate of
entrepreneurial nascence, while collectivistic values will have a negative effect
on it. They present the hypothesis that entrepreneurs have a specific set of
values that is positively related to the probability of creating an enterprise; this is
they show a significant presence of individualistic and ‘mixed’ values rather than
collectivistic ones. But what the authors find in their analysis is that individualist
values do not show any positive or statistically significant relationship to the
probability of creating an enterprise. The ‘mixed’ values, however, do show a
positive relationship to entrepreneurship, while collectivist values show a
negative relationship, meaning the increase in presence of collectivist values
clearly diminishes the probability of entrepreneurial nascence (Valencia de Lara
et al. 2007).
Although the literature has investigated various types of factors and their
relationship with entrepreneurship, among them personality factors and values,
there has been little research into the impact of postmaterialistic values on
entrepreneurship. Only one study thus far has looked at the specific relationship
between the presence of postmaterialistic values and rates of entrepreneurship.
Uhlaner and Thurik (2007) approached the matter by seeking to explain how
postmaterialism influences differences in entrepreneurial behaviour across
countries. The study uses aggregate data from different sources. For this
objective the authors developed a measure of postmaterialism based on
Inglehart’s four-item postmaterialism index (Inglehart 1990), and including
several controls for economic, social and demographic effects. Their findings
across 27 countries confirm the significance of postmaterialism in predicting
total entrepreneurial activity and more particularly, new business formation
rates.
Uhlaner and Thurik argue that in societies with a strong presence of
postmaterialistic values, the rate of total entrepreneurial activity is likely to be
lower than in societies where material values have more importance to the
individual. To test this hypothesis, they run regressions using Inglehart’s four-
item index as a measure for postmaterialism against the dependent variable of
total entrepreneurial activity. Their findings lend support to the hypothesis that
there exists a negative relationship between postmaterialism and total
entrepreneurial activity; that is, countries with a higher presence of
postmaterialism tend to have lower total entrepreneurial activity, seen as in the
combination of nascent entrepreneurship and new business formation.
Furthermore, they find that when introducing controls for education and life
satisfaction, there remains an independent negative influence of
postmaterialism on the rate of entrepreneurial activity (if the control variables
are viewed together in the model), making it possible to refute the possibility of
the influence of postmaterialism being spurious. However, the lack of stability of
the results when the control variables are introduced independently, and in
general, the lack of studies linking postmaterialism and entrepreneurship, call
for more thorough research in this line.
Some years earlier, the same authors, Uhlaner and Thurik (2002) tested the
same hypothesis with data from 24 OECD countries at the country level. In this
case postmaterialism against selfemployment rates, controlling for various
economic and social factors such life satisfaction, church attendance and
extremism. Similar to their previous mentioned research at the macro level, they
found a negative relationship between post materialism and self-employment.
Despite the academic interest in the determinants of entrepreneurship, there is
a lack of cultural elements in entrepreneurship research. Several authors claim
that more studies comparing entrepreneurs across cultures are needed. These
studies would enable us to come to a more complete understanding of the
national culture´s influence on entrepreneurial characteristics (Hayton, George
and Zahra, 2002; Freytag and Thurik, 2007). Moreover, some scholars argued
that the studies in the area of entrepreneurship and culture should measure
cultural orientations at the individual level instead of culture at the aggregate
level (Koenig, Steinmetz, Frese, Rauch and Wang, 2007). Following these lines
of reasoning this paper focuses on the individual as a unit of analysis,
something that has not been done so far in the research of the relationship of
entrepreneurship and postmaterialism.
2. Postmaterialism. An overviewOne of the predominant theories regarding values is the Postmaterialistic values
one. It has been developed by Ronald Inglehart (University of Michigan, director
of the World Values Survey). Inglehart suggested that a transformation in the
political culture of advanced industrial societies may be taking place, a
transformation that “seems to be altering the basic value priorities of given
generations as a result of changing conditions influencing their basic
socialization” (Inglehart 1971, p. 991). This idea was to guide his production
over the following years and became the theoretical framework of the WVS
project, one of the most ambitious — and respected — public opinion research
projects that currently exist.2
2 The World Values Survey (WVS) is described on its website as a “worldwide network of social scientists studying changing values and their impact on social and political life”. The project has been carrying out representative national surveys in 97 societies containing almost 90 percent of the world’s
Inglehart’s theory on human development began to take shape in the early
1970s, but it was in his 1977 work The silent revolution: changing values and
political styles among Western publics that he introduced the notion of
postmaterialism that would be key to his subsequent work. In The silent
revolution Inglehart described how a major intergenerational shift in the values
of the populations of advanced industrial societies was taking place, and
proposed two hypotheses that explained these patterns of change. The first he
called a “scarcity” hypothesis, which established a distinction between material
needs for basic survival (physiological needs, safety), and non-material needs,
such as aesthetic satisfaction and self-expression values. Departing from
Maslow’s theory of the hierarchy of human needs (Maslow 1943); Inglehart
argued that while virtually everyone aspires to freedom and autonomy, human
beings place the highest value on their most pressing needs. This is why in
socioeconomic environments where material sustenance and physical security
are not yet resolved; people will tend to prioritize these “materialistic” goals,
while in conditions of prolonged prosperity, “postmaterialistic” values such as
autonomy, belonging, esteem, self-expression and intellectual satisfaction will
be emphasized (Inglehart 1977, 1990). However, Inglehart warns that the
relationship between socioeconomic conditions and priorities in values is not
one of immediate adjustment, and this is where he introduces his second
hypothesis, that of “socialization”, as a complement to the “scarcity” one. The
“socialization” hypothesis starts out from the idea that basic human personality
tends to crystallize by the time an individual reaches adulthood, undergoing
relatively little change thereafter (Rokeach 1973). This implies that value
changes in societies are gradual processes that occur through intergenerational
replacement, as they will only happen when younger generations with new
values replace older ones in the adult population. Only “after an extended
period of rising economic and physical security, one would expect to find
substantial differences between the value priorities of older and younger
groups, since they would have been shaped by different experiences in their
population, through five waves of surveys that date from 1981 through 2007. “The WVS provides an unprecedently rich cross-cultural data base exploring orientations toward religion, politics, work, economic growth, family values, sexual norms, and gender roles” (Inglehart and Carballo, 1997). See www.worldvaluessurvey.org
formative years. But a sizeable time-lag would occur between economic
changes and their political effects” (Inglehart 2008, p. 132). In short, Inglehart
argues that socialization in the absence of scarcity produces individuals with
post-materialist values, and that the shift in values taking place in advanced
industrial societies is a reflection of these conditions.
In Culture Shift in Advanced Industrialized Societies (1990) Inglehart again
argues that the “unprecedented levels of economic and physical security that
prevailed during the post-war era has led to an intergenerational shift from
Materialist to Postmaterialist values” (Inglehart 1990, p. 103). The analysis in
this work is expanded to include a large body of time-series survey data (the
Eurobarometers) from twenty-six nations gathered from 1970 through 1988.
Through them he analyzed the cultural changes happening in Europe — which
he then described as a shift “from an overwhelming emphasis on material well-
being and physical security toward greater emphasis on the quality of life”3
(Inglehart 1990). Inglehart concluded that a large number of basic values and
the changes they are undergoing in contemporary societies (both advanced
industrial societies and those in process of modernization) can be depicted in
two major dimensions of cross-cultural variation: “traditional authority/secular-
rational authority” and “survival/self-expression values”4. These two dimensions
explain more than 70 percent of the cross-national variance in a factor analysis
of ten indicators, and each of these dimensions is strongly correlated with
scores of other important orientations.5 These two axes, and the location of
each society on them, lead to the creation of the famous “Inglehart-Welzel
Cultural Map of the World”.6
His interpretation of these findings crystallized in a revised version of
modernization theories, which once again took up the idea that economic
development leads to specific, functionally related changes in mass values and
belief systems (Inglehart 1997, Inglehart and Carballo 1997). This implied
3 This notion had already been theoretically shaped in his work on the concept of postmaterialism in the 1970s. See The Silent Revolution (1977).4 Originally the second dimension oscillated between “survival‟ and “well-being”, but after the nineties Inglehart replaced the second notion with the more precise label of “self-expression”.5 http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/ (date of survey: May 3, 2009).6 See Figs. 2 and 3 in Appendix.
readdressing the controversial point that economic development, cultural
change, and political change go together in coherent and even, to some extent,
predictable patterns; though introducing the notion that once societies have
completed their industrialization processes, they initiate a new series of cultural
changes that pass from survival to postmaterialist well-being and self-
expression values.7 According to this idea, societies that have achieved a
certain level of economical development and prosperity provide the necessary
conditions for the emergence of new political issues and foster the appearance
of new political movements interested in topics such as environmentalism,
quality of life, autonomy, individual self-expression and tolerance, rather than
“traditional” modern concerns such as reindustrialization and rearmament. This
is in fact what Inglehart calls the “silent revolution” which is brought about
through intergenerational value change in industrialized societies: old material
values (economic productivity, growth, order, safety) are displaced by new
postmaterial ones (self-expression, ecological balance, quality of life,
democracy, human rights).
An extensive body of literature shows the profound impact that Inglehart’s ideas
on the nature of value change have had in the social sciences. His theoretical
assumptions, methodological tools and practical implications have been cited
and used widely by social researchers around the world in a variety of fields that
include studies regarding value change (Flanagan 1982, Abramson and
Inglehart 1987, 1992, 1995, de Graaf et al. 1989, Halman and de Moor 1994, de
Graaf and Evans 1996), democracy and electoral studies (Gibson and Duch
1994, Brown and Carmines 1995, Dalton 1996, Fuchs and Rohrschneider
1998), economic and entrepreneurial studies (Granato et. al 1996, de Graaf
1988, Uhlaner et al. 2002, Uhlaner and Thurik 2007), and a variety of political
science studies that deal with participation and citizenship (Anderson 1990, Opp
1990, Layman and Carmines 1997), among other fields. The postmaterialism
index has been included (either in its short four-item version, or its longer
twelve-item version) in surveys such as the European Community Surveys, the
General Social Surveys and National Election Surveys from the US, the
7 The main conceptual features of Inglehart’s stance on modernization can be found in Modernization and Postmodernization (1997). See Fig. 1 in Appendix for a simplified exposition.
International Social Survey Programme, the World Values Surveys, and many
others.
But controversy regarding Inglehart’s ideas and index has also been present in
vast amounts. Amongst others, the validity, the stability and the causation of
postmaterialism have been called into question. Authors have argued that the
classification of human beings into materialist or postmaterialist categories
(from which Inglehart develops his ratio of materialist to postmaterialist) is
founded on no real evidence, but that people mostly have mixed values, some
more materialist, some more post-materialist (Brooks and Manza 1994). Others
have noted that the postmaterialist issues Inglehart describes are in fact non-
materialist liberal values, and furthermore, that some materialist values can be
well described as authoritarian values (Flanagan 1987, de Graaf and Evans
1996). Changes in values have also been explained by rising levels of
education (de Graaf and Evans 1996, Davis 1996).
The relationship between postmaterialism and entrepreneurship therefore does
not seem clear a priori. On one hand, the value that postmaterialist people
attach to autonomy leads one to believe that they might also seek such
autonomy in their working life and that setting up one's own company would be
one way of achieving this, but on the other hand, at the same time, the fact that
postmaterialist people value money and the search for material security less,
may also influence the final decision of creating a company that is economically
motivated. This position assumes that wealth creation is the most important
objective of entrepreneurial efforts. In this respect, a causal relationship can be
envisaged between postmaterialism and entrepreneurship. Following the
previous findings in the field at the aggregate level (Uhlaner and Thurik 2004,
2007), this study also assumes that the more postmaterialist a country is, the
less entrepreneurship ratios it has. At the individual level, this is the hypothesis
that the study is testing.
METHODOLOGY
Model
This study analyses whether postmaterialism has a predictive value on
entrepreneurship. A set of economic and demographic variables was chosen to
analyse the independent role that postmaterialism plays in predicting
entrepreneurial activity. These control variables are: Age, gender and education
level. Income level was also used to control for economic effects.
This study’s hypothesis may be summed up by the syllogism that materialistic
people seek material security whereas postmaterialistic people seek to satisfy
needs such as self-expression, independence and fulfilling personal objectives
in life and that for this reason the latter may tend to set up less companies than
the materialists.
Research question and hypothesisIn a more general framework of the determinants of entrepreneurship, this study
´s research question is: Which individual values explain the decision to become
entrepreneur? And the study´s hypothesis is: People who are more
postmaterialistic tend to start up less companies than people who are more
materialistic.
Data Data from 25 OECD countries was taken from the World Value Survey, for the
wave 1999-2004. The five OECD countries not included in the study are:
Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland and Great Britain. The first four
did not take part in the World Value Survey in the wave that was analysed. In
the case of Great Britain, the questions on Postmaterialism were omitted in the
1999-2004 wave. The OECD countries were chosen due to their income level,
rates of unemployment and because inequality rates were more similar among
them than among other countries included in the World Value Survey.
Variables
In order to test the model, seven variables were chosen from the above
mentioned data base. Below are the variables that were used together with
their values:
Independent variable
- Postmaterialism (index 4) – variable y002 (1=materialist; 2=mixed values;
3=postmaterialist)
Control variables
- Gender – variable x001 (0=male; 1=female)
- Age – variable x0031r1 (six categories from 1=15-24 years old to 6>=65
years old).
- Education level – variable x025r (1=lower; 2=middle; 3=upper)
- Income level – variable x047 recoded (1=low; 2=medium; 3=high)
Dependent variable. Entrepreneurship was measured with the variable self-
employment
- Employment Status – variable (alternative 3=Self employment). This
variable was recoded. The original value “3” was allocated value “1” and
the original variables “employed-part time” and “employed-full time”
become value 0. By using this process the variable was transformed into
a dichotomic variable.
SampleThe database contains data on 38075 subjects. For the chosen variables, the
valid data contains 20112 cases. The unit unit of analysis is the individual.
AnalysisIn order to test the hypothesis, logistic regression was used in a series of
models carried out to determine the effects of different variables. Analyses were
performed for the entire sample of subjects from the 25 countries in addition to
country-by-country analyses. Furthermore, 24 dichotomous dummy variables
were included in all of the models for the entire sample (one for each country,
with the exception of one which was used for the purpose of contrast). This was
done by attempting to correct the standard errors, given that contextual factors
could cause the individual values of one same country to be correlated.
RESULTS
Table 1 shows the regressions made between postmaterialism and
entrepreneurship. Six models are presented, which gradually add variables
beginning from postmaterialism alone to postmaterialism together with age,
gender, education level and income level. Postmaterialism by itself explains
0,1% of entrepreneurship variance. When controlled separately by using the
five different variables, a difference in each case is observed. The five variables
together account for 3,0% of entrepreneurship variance. Regarding the
influence that independent and control variables have on the probabilities of
becoming an entrepreneur, postmaterialism decreases the probability and it is
significant in any model except in the last one. The variables, age (p<0,001),
along with the fact of being a woman (p<0,001), increase the likelihood of
becoming an entrepreneur. On the other hand income level (p<0,001) and
educational level (p<0,001) decreases the probability to be an entrepreneur.
In summing up, postmaterialism predicts decreasing likelihoods of
entrepreneurship in the 25 OECD countries taken as a whole. The effects of the
chosen control variables differ and all of them have a statistically significant
impact. Following these analyses and because it is clear that postmaterialism
has a significant effect on entrepreneurship, a variable was sought in the
database of the World Value Survey that would measure attitudes towards
capitalism or towards the accumulation of money for the purpose of being used
as a new control variable and in order to see its effect on entrepreneurship.
Even though the variable exists in the WVS and is termed Wealth Accumulation
(variable e041), the question was not formulated for any of the countries in the
1999-2004 wave.
Table 1 Regressions on self employment (S.E). 25 OECD countries
Model 0 Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Model 4 Model 5 Variables Postmaterialism on S.E. Postmaterialism and Postmaterialism, Postmaterialism, income level, All variables on
income level on S.E income level and age and gender on S.E. S.E.age on S.E.
Exp (B) Exp (B) Exp (B) Exp (B) Exp (B)(Standard error) (Standard error) (Standard error) (Standard error) (Standard error)
Postmaterialism ,902** ,913* ,929* ,924* ,952(0,03) (0,03) (0,03) (0,03) (0,03)
Income level ,845*** ,84*** ,837*** ,872***(0,02) (0,02) (0,3) (0,03)
Age 1,28*** 1,27*** 1,263***(0,01) (0,01) (0,01)
Gender 2,12*** 2,087***(0,05) (0,05)
Education level ,85***(0,03)
Constant ,163*** ,26*** ,28*** ,128*** ,082*** 0,1***(,022) (0,74) (0,93) (0,11) (0,11) (0,12)
R2 Cox-Snell 0,001 0,003 0,013 0,028 0,030R2 Nagelkerke 0,001 0,005 0,024 0,050 0,053
Notes:Valid N for all the independent variables = 20112*p<0,05; **p<0,01; ***p<0,001 In order to correct the standard errors, it has been included 24 dichotomy variables (one for each country) in the calculation of all the models.
Table 2. Regressions on entrepreneurship. Country by country.
Notes:+p<0,10; *p<0,05; **p<0,01; ***p<0,001 (1) Presented Exp(B) of postmaterialism, corresponds to the model which includes all the
variables: income level, age, gender and education level. The same with the R2 Cox-Snell and R2 Nagelkerke.
Table 2 presents coefficients country by country. It presents the odds ratio of
the effect of postmaterialism of the fifth model, in other words of all the control
variables. It also shows Cox-Snell’s and Nagelkerke R2 values of the model with
all of the variables. The country-by-country analysis reveals that the effect of
postmaterialism operating together with income level, age, gender and
educational level is statistically significant in only five countries: Austria
(p<0,05), the Czech Republic (p<0,05), France (p<0,05), Japan (p<0,001) and
Turkey (p<0,001). Moreover, the highest R2 are those of Ireland (R2 = 0,239)
and Japan (R2 = 0,17), both of which are particularly influenced by gender.
CountryN
EXP(B) (1)R2 Cox – Snell
(R2 Nagelkerke) (1) Postmaterialism
Austria 776 1,7* ,038 (,085)Belgium 888 ,966 ,034 (,079)Canada 1077 1,294 ,019 (,043)Czech Republic 1027 1,549* ,014 (,029)Denmark 633 ,392+ ,041 (,143)Finland 521 1,058 ,010 (,019)France 794 ,398* ,010 (,052)Germany 895 1,557+ ,028 (,071)Greece 706 1,281 ,020 (,038)Hungary 462 1,463 ,017 (,042)Iceland 753 ,888 ,060 (,096)Ireland 573 1,187 ,150 (,239)Italy 1080 1,093 ,017 (,027)Japan 825 1,993** ,105 (,170)Korea 726 ,876 ,068 (,097)Luxemburg 670 ,817 ,017 (,055)Mexico 874 1,007 ,064 (,097)Netherlands 636 1,238 ,048 (,095)Poland 522 1,097 ,026 (,048)Portugal 454 1,500 ,078 (,137)Slovakia 772 1,139 ,025 (,076)Spain 1066 ,787 ,018 (,034)Sweden 661 ,954 ,026 (,100)Turkey 1890 ,797** ,106 (,148)USA 831 1,210 ,018 (,045)
DISCUSSION
The results of the study confirm that there is reasonable evidence to support the
stated hypothesis, which envisaged a potential negative relationship between
postmaterialism and entrepreneurship. In line with the idea that the more a
society values money, the less postmaterialistic it is, we can conclude that the
rate of entrepreneurial activity is also likely to be lower in postmaterialistic
societies.
The syllogism proposed in this paper that materialistic people seek material
security and that postmaterialistic people seek to satisfy other needs in life (i.e.
autonomy and fulfilling personal objectives) and that for this reason the latter
may tend to set up less companies than the materialists, has been confirmed. It
is, in fact, materialistic people, concerned with material needs, who tend to
create more companies. This suggests that the postmaterialistic values of sel-
expression, freedom, independence and fulfilment of personal objectives do not
necessarily apply to the sphere of work and that people do not associate these
values primarily with creating a company of their own. Furthermore, the findings
provide support for the hypothesis that an entrepreneur is essentially an
economically oriented person regardless of the sort of entrepreneur he/she is,
either through necessity or through opportunity.
The different lines of research approached in entrepreneurship have assumed
from the outset that the principle for creating a company is to make money.
Following to Aldrich (2005), Rindova, Barry and Ketchen (2009) affirm that the
four main approaches in entrepreneurship research share this idea. “While
these approaches vary in their tenets and nuances, they explicitly or implicitly
share an underlying assumption that wealth creation is a (if not the)
fundamental goal of entrepreneurial efforts” (Rindova, V., Barry, D. and
Ketchen, D., 2009). On the other hand, there are also authors (although fewer)
who are of the opinion that the quest for autonomy is one of the main motivators
for self-employment (Kolvereid, 1996). The results of this study are clearly in
line with the tradition of understanding the entrepreneur first and foremost as a
person who basically seeks to make money. Nonetheless, the relationship
between postmaterialistic values and entrepreneurship is still not completely
clear, given the lack of stability of the results in the different countries and the
scant explained-data in the models put forward.
In the case of the results obtained separately for individuals from the 25
countries, these are only statistically significant in five. In Turkey and France
postmaterialism, when operating with the chosen control variables, reduces
one's probabilities of becoming an entrepreneur; whereas in Austria, the Czech
Republic and Japan, it increases them. These three latter cases are particularly
interesting because this study´s hypothesis is not confirmed in them. In these
countries postmaterialism increases significantly the likelihood to become
entrepreneur, the opposite of what happens in the analyzed 25 OECD countries
as a whole. In the case of Austria, Japan and the Czech Republic, the
differences are apparently greater than the similarities in the variables analysed
in this study. In addition to the fact that all of them belong to the OECD, the
most outstanding similarity is they have relatively similar population pyramids
with a tendency in Japan to have more people with ages over 658 and in Czech
Republic to have more people with ages between 26 and 40. On the other
hand, apart from the most obvious difference in their political and economic
systems and traditions, certain indicators stand out. In spite of the fact that
Japanese and Austrian per capita income are higher than the one in the Czech
Republic, the relative poverty rates, as well as income inequality coefficients are
higher in Japan and Austria than in the Czech Republic (OECD, 2008).
Particularly significant are the number of entrepreneurs in the three countries. In
2004 Japan had a TEA9 of 1,5% (information for Austria and Czech Republic in
2004 are not available). In 2006 the Czech Republic had a TEA of 7.9%, Austria
of 2,4% and Japan of 4,3% (GEM, 2006). The search for explanations for the
significant effect that postmaterialism has in the entrepreneurship in Austria,
Japan and the Czech Republic, clearly points to the need for further research
into the particular features of both countries. Particularly when postmaterialism
8 The most recent data available to the OECD for this indicator are from 2004. (OECD, 2008)
9 TEA (Early-stage Entrepreneurial Activity) includes individuals who have taken some actions towards starting a new company and individuals who have been running their own business for less than 42 months). The most recent data for the Czech Republic in this indicator are those from 2006; for Austria 2007 and for Japan from 2008. (GEM Consortium, 2009).
punctuations are similar in both Japan and Czech Republic, but much higher in
Austria.
The main result of this research work suggests that for postmaterialistic people
the effect of autonomy is compensated or even surpassed by the lesser interest
generated by money. Therefore, this finding provides support for policies which
incorporate cultural values into entrepreneurship promotion programmes in
more postmaterialistic societies, for example, by promoting the value of
independence as opposed to economic profits only.
The study has some limitations. All variables reflect a measurement in a specific
point in time (1999 - 2004), which was chosen for practical reasons (a more
complete sample of countries than in other periods). This could suggest that the
relationship between the proposed variables may be different if data were
analysed from different periods. At the same time, the definition of an
entrepreneur as simply a person who is self-employed, has a series of
limitations, two in particular: first of all, this definition does not take into account
innovation and employment creation factors, both strongly related to the fact of
being an entrepreneur and secondly, it does not distinguish between different
types of entrepreneurs.
Other research scenarios taking into consideration these findings, are to
analyse the potential mediating effect that postmaterialism has on the
relationship between economic variables and entrepreneurial activity; following
Inglehart’s suggestion that the economic environment moves social change
rather than the other way round. Likewise, this research study proposes
questions about the potential interplay between the entrepreneurs’ desire for
autonomy and their desire to earn more money. Schumpeter himself, the
founder of one of the traditions that regard entrepreneurship to be related to the
desire to create new products and markets had stated that entrepreneurial
behaviour is more related to independence and personal achievement than to
hedonism (Schumpeter, 1934). Finally, further research could also be done with
longitudinal data, trying to confirm (or not) the stability of the relationship
between entrepreneurship and postmaterialism.
REFERENCES
Abramson, P. R. & Inglehart, R. (1987). Generational Replacement and the Future of Post-Materialist Values. Journal of Politics, 49(2), 231-241.
Abramson, P. R. & Inglehart, R. (1992). Generational Replacement and Value Change in Eight Western European Societies. British Journal of Political Science, 22(2), 183-228.
Abramson, P. R. & Inglehart, R. (1995). Value change in global perspective. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Aghion, P. & Hewitt, P. (1997). Endogenous Growth Theory. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Anderson, L. R. (1990). Postmaterialism from a Peasant Perspective: Political Motivation in Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Comparative Political Studies, 23(1), 80-113.
Baum, J.R., Olian, J.D., Erez, M., Schnell, E.R., Smith, K.G., Sims, H.P., Scully, J.S. & Smith, K.A. (1993). Nationality and work role interactions: a cultural contrast of Israeli and U.S. entrepreneurs versus managers needs. Journal of Business Venturing, 8(6), 499-512.
Beugelsdijk, S. (2007). Entrepreneurial culture, regional innovativeness and economic growth. Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 17, 187-210.
Blanchflower, D.G. (2000). Self-employment in OECD countries. Labour Economics, 7(5), 471-505.
Brooks, C. & Manza, J. (1994). Do Changing Values Explain the New Politics? A Critical Assessment of the Postmaterialist Thesis. Sociological Quarterly, 35(4), 541-570.
Brown, R., & Carmines, E. (1995). Materialists, Postmaterialists, and the Criteria for Political Choice in U.S. Presidential Elections. Journal of Politics, 57(2), 483-94.
Busenitz, L.W., Gomez, C. & Spencer, J.W. (2000). Country institutional profiles: unlocking entrepreneurial phenomena. Academy of Management Journal, 43(5), 994-1003.
Brunet, I. & Alarcón, A. (2004). Teorías sobre la figura del emprendedor. Papers: revista de sociología, 73, 81-103.
Carland, J.W., Hoy, F., Boulton, W.R. & Carland, J.A.C. (1984). Differentiating Entrepreneurs from Small Business Owners. Academy of Management Review, 9, 354-359.
Clarke, H., Kornberg, A., McIntyre, C., Bauer-Kaase, P. & Kaase, M. (1999). The Effect of Economic Priorities on the Measurement of Value Change: New Experimental Evidence. American Political Science Review, 93(3), 637-647.
Cochran, T. (1971). The Entrepreneur in Economic Change. Entrepreneurship and Economic Development, The Free Press.
Cooper, A.C., Gimeno-Gascon, F.J. & Woo, C.Y. (1994). Initial Human and Financial Capital as Predictors of New Venture Performance. Journal of Business Venturing, 9, 371-395.
Covin, J.G. & Slevin, D.P. (1989). Strategic Management of Small Firms in Hostile and Benign Environments. Strategic Management Journal, 10, 75-87.
Dalton, R. (1996). Citizen Politics: Public Opinion and Political Parties in Advanced Industrial Democracies. (2nd ed.). Chatham, NJ: Chatham House.
Davidsson, P. (1995). Culture, structure and regional levels of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 7(1), 41-62.
Davidsson, P. (2004). Researching entrepreneurship. Berlin, Heidelberg, New York: Springer.
Davidsson, P. & Wiklund, J. (1997). Values, beliefs and regional variations in new form formation rates. Journal of Economics Psychology, 18, 179–199.
Davis, J. A. (1996). Review: Value Change in Global Perspective. The Public Opinion Quarterly, 60(2), 322-331.
Davis, D. W., & Davenport, C. (1999). Assessing the Validity of the Postmaterialism Index. The American Political Science Review, 93(3), 649-664.
Etzioni, A. (1987). Entrepreneurship, adaptation and legitimation. Journal of Economic Behaviour & Organization, 8, 175-189.
Feather, N. T. (1975). Values in education and society. New York: Free Press.
Flanagan, S.C. (1982). Changing Values in Advanced Industrial Societies: Inglehart’s Silent Revolution from the Perspective of Japanese Findings. Comparative Political Studies, 14(4), 403-444.
Flanagan, S.C. (1987). Value change in Industrial Societies. American Political Science Review, 81(4), 1303-1319.
Freytag, A & Thurik, R. (2007). Entrepreneurship and its determinants in a cross-country setting. Journal of Evolutionary Economic, 17, 117-131.
Fuchs, D. & Rohrschneider, R. (1998). Postmaterialism and electoral choice before and after German unification. Western European Politics, 21(2), 95-116.
Garcia-Cabrera, A.M. & Garcia-Soto, M.G. (2008). Cultural differences and entrepreneurial behaviour: an intra-country cross-cultural analysis in Cape Verde. Entrepreneurship & regional Development, 20(5), 451-483.
Gibson, J. L., & Duch, R.M. (1994). Postmaterialism and the Emerging Soviet Democracy. Political Research Quarterly, 47(1), 5-39.
Global Entrepreneurship Monitor. GEM 2006, 2007 and 2008 Global Reports.http://www.gemconsortium.org/ Accessed during August and September 2009.
Gong, X. & Soest, A. (2002) Wage differentials and mobility in the urban labor market: a panel data analysis from Mexico. Labor Economics, 9, 513–529.
Graaf, N. D. de, (1988). Postmaterialism and the Stratification Process: An International Comparison. Utrecht: ISOR.
Graaf, N.D. de, & Evans, G. (1996). Why are the young more postmaterialist?” A cross-national analysis of individual and contextual influences on postmaterial values. Comparative Political Studies, 28(4), 608-635.
Graaf, N.D. de, Hagenaars, J., & Luijkx, R. (1989). Intragenerational Stability of Postmaterialism in the United States, West Germany and the Netherlands. European Sociological Review 5(2), 183-201.
Granato, J., Inglehart, R. & Leblang, D. (1996). The Effect of Cultural Values on Economics Development: Theory, Hypotheses and Some Empirical Tests. American Journal of Political Science, 40(3), 604-631.
Grilo, I & Thurik, A.R. (2005). Latent and actual entrepreneurship in Europe and the U.S: some recent developments. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, 1(4), 441-459.
Halman, L., & De Moor, R. (1994). Value shift in Western societies. In P. Ester, L. Halman, & R. de Moor (Eds.), The Individualizing Society: Value Change in Europe and North America (1-20). Tilburg: Tilburg University Press.
Hayton, C, George, G. and Zahra, S. A. (2002). National culture and entrepreneurship: a Review of behavioral research. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Summer, 33–52.
Huisman, D. (1985). Entrepreneurship: economic and cultural influences on the entrepreneurial climate. European Research, 13(4), 10-17.
Illeris, S. (1986). New firm creation in Denmark: the importance of the cultural background. In D. Keeble & E. Weaver (eds.), New firms and regional development in Europe (141-150). London: Croom Helm Editions.
Inglehart, R. (1971). The Silent Revolution in Europe: Intergenerational Change in Post-Industrial Societies. American Political Science Review, 65(4), 991-1017.
Inglehart, R. (1977). The silent revolution: changing values and political styles among Western publics. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
Inglehart, R (1990). Culture shift in advanced industrial society. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Inglehart, R. (1997). Modernization and postmodernization: cultural, economic, and political change in 43 societies. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
Inglehart, R. (2008). Changing Values among Western Publics from 1970 to 2006. Western European Politics, 31(1-2), 130-146.
Inglehart, R. & Carballo, M. (1997). “Does Latin America Exist? (And is there a Confucian Culture?): A Global Analysis of Cross-Cultural Differences”. Political Science and Politics, 30(1), 34-47.
Javidan, M. (2004). Performance Orientation. In R. House, P.J. Hanges, M. Javidan, P.W. Dorfman, & V. Gupta (eds.), Culture, Leadership and Organizations. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Keeble, D. & Walker, S. (1994). New Firms, Small Firms, and Dead Firms: Spatial Patterns and Determinants in the United Kingdom. Regional Studies, 28, 411-427.
Kirzner, I.M. (1973). Competition and entrepreneurship. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Knight, F.H. (1921). Risk, Uncertainty and Profit. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Co.
König, C., Steinmetz, H., Frese, M., Rauch, A., Wang, Z. (2007). Scenario based scales measuring cultural orientations of business owners. Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 17, 211-239.
Kolvereid, L. (1996). Organizational employment vs. self-employment: Reasons for career choice intentions. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice. 20(3), 23-31
Layman, G. & Carmines, E. (1997). Cultural conflict in American politics: Religious traditionalism, postmaterialism, and U.S. political behavior. The Journal of Politics, 59(3), 751-777.
Lee, S.M. & Peterson, S.J. (2000). Culture, entrepreneurial orientation and global competitiveness. Journal of World Business, 35(4), 401-416.
Leibenstein, H. (1968). Entrepreneurship and Development. American Economic Review, 58, 67-86.
Lynn, R. (1991). The Secret of the Miracle Economy; Different National Attitudes to Competitiveness and Money, Social Affairs Unit, Exeter.
Maslow, A.H. (1943). A Theory of Human Motivation. Psychological Review, 50(4), 370-396.
McClelland, D.C. (1961). The Achieving Society, Princeton, NJ: D. van Nostrand Company Inc.
McGrath, R.G. & McMillan, I.C. (1992). More like each other than anyone else? Cross cultural study of entrepreneurial perceptions. Journal of Business Venturing, 7(5), 419-429.
Moriano, J.A., Trejo, E. & Palací, F.J. (2001). El perfil psicosocial del emprendedor: un estudio desde la perspectiva de los valores. Revista de Psicología Social, 16(2), 229-242.
Mueller, S.L. & Thomas, A.S. (2001). Culture and entrepreneurial potential: a nine country study of locus of control and innovativeness. Journal of Business Venturing, 16(1), 51-75.
Muhanna, E. (2007). Conceptual Analysis of Determinants of Entrepreneurship: A South African Perspective. Problems and Perspectives in Management, 5(1), 95-102.
Noorderhaven, N.G., Wennekers, A.R.M., Thurik, A.R. & Van Stel, A (2004). Self-employment across 15 European countries: the role of dissatisfaction. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 29(1), 447-466.
OECD, 2008. Measuring entrepreneurship: a digest of indicators. http://www.oecd.org/statistics/entrepreneurshipindicators Accessed during August and September 2009.
OECD, 2008. Growing Unequal? Income Distribution and Poverty in OECD countries.
Opp, K.D. (1990). Postmaterialism, Collective Action, and Political Protest. American Journal of Political Science, 34(2), 212-235.
Rindova, V., Barry, D. and Ketchen, D. (2009). Entrepreneuring as emancipation. Academy of Management Review, 34(3), 477-491.
Ritchie, B. and Brindley, C. (2005). Cultural determinants of competitiveness within SMEs. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, 12(1), 104-119.
Rokeach, M. (1973). The nature of human values. New York: Free Press.
Romanelli, E.B. (1986). Environments and Strategies of Organization Start-Up: Effects on Early Survival. Administrative Science Quarterly, 369-387.
Schumpeter, J.A. (1934). The theory of economic development: an inquiry into profits, capital, credit, interest, and the business cycle. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Schwartz, S.H. (1992). Universals in the content and structure of values: Theory and empirical tests in 20 countries. In M.P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 25, 1-65). New York: Academic Press.
Schwartz, S. (1994). Are there universal aspects in the structure and content of human values? Journal of Social Issues, 50(4), 19-45.
Schwartz, S. (2007). Value orientations: measurement, antecedents and consequences across nations. In R. Jowell, C. Roberts, R. Fitzgerald & G. Eva (eds.), Measuring attitudes cross-nationally. Lessons from the European Social Survey (169-203). London: Sage Publications.
Suddle, K., Beugelsdijk, S. & Wennekers, S. (2006). Entrepreneurial Culture and its Effect on the Rate of Nascent Entrepreneurship. SCALES paper EIM Zoetermeer, available at http://www.eim.net/pdf-ez/N200519.pdf.
van Stel, A. (2005). Harmonizing business ownership data across countries and over time. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, 1(1), 105-123.
Thomas, A.S. & Mueller, S.L. (2000). A Case for Comparative Entrepreneurship: Assessing the Relevance of Culture. Journal of International Business Studies, 31, 287-301.
Tiessen, J.H. (1997). Individualism, collectivism, and entrepreneurship: a framework for international comparative research. Journal of Business Venturing, 12(5), 367-384.
Uhlaner, L.M. & Thurik, A.R. (2007). Postmaterialism influencing total entrepreneurial activity across nations. Journal of Evolutionary Economic, 17(2), 161-185.
Uhlaner, L.M., Thurik A.R., & Hutjes, J. (2002). Postmaterialism: a cultural factor influencing entrepreneurial activity across nations. ERIM report ERS-2002-62-STR. Rotterdam: Erasmus Research Institute for Management.
Valencia de Lara, M.P., García Villaverde, P.M. & Jiménez Moreno, J.J. (2007). Factores determinantes en la creación de una empresa: Valores culturales, redes sociales y ayudas públicas. Conocimiento, innovación y emprendedores: camino al futuro / coord. por Juan Carlos Ayala Calvo, 1141-1155.
van de Ven, A.H. (1993). The Development of an Infrastructure for Entrepreneurship. Journal of Business Venturing, 8, 211-230.
Verheul, I., Wennekers, A.R.M., Audretsch, D.B. & Thurik, A.R. (2002). An Eclectic Theory of Entrepreneurship. In D.B. Audretsch, A.R. Thurik, I. Verheul and A.R.M. Wennekers (eds.), Entrepreneurship: Determinants and Policy in a European-U.S. Comparison (11-81). Boston, Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishing.
Wang, C. K. & Wong, P. K. (2004). Entrepreneurial interest of university students in Singapore, Technovation, 24, 163–172.
Wennekers, S., van Stel, A., Thurik, R., and Reynolds, P. (2005). Nascent entrepreneurship and the level of economic development. Small Business Economics, 24, 293-309.
Wennekers, A.R.M. (2006). Entrepreneurship at country level: economic and non-economic determinants. Phd thesis. Erasmus Research Institute of Management, Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Zahra, S.A. (1996). Technology Strategy and Financial Performance: Examining the Moderating Role of the Firm’s Competitive Environment. Journal of Business Venturing, 11, 189-219.
APPENDIX
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3