Business Creation Stability: Why is it so Hard to Increase Entrepreneurship?

The substantial diversity among countries in the level of business creation is accompanied by a high level of year-to-year consistency for individual countries. It would appear that the national value structures are relatively stable over time, are related to a wide range of national characteristics, and have a major impact on the readiness of individuals to pursue business creation. Countries with a strong emphasis on traditional rather than secular-rational values and an emphasis on self-expressive rather than survival values have more adults ready for entrepreneurship. This leads directly to a higher national prevalence of nascent entrepreneurs and new firm owner-managers; more business creation is followed by greater economic growth. The difficulty in adjusting these national values may be the reason that the multitude of policy initiatives to increase entrepreneurship have met with limited success.