3. Entrepreneurial Activities in a Regional Context

Despite all efforts made by political agents to reduce the gap between regions with a high level of economic activities and those with a considerably lower one, an uneven distribution of regional success and development can be observed. For example, in Germany, there is a decline in economic activities, like innovations, employment or start-ups rates, from the south to the north and in addition a decline from the west to the east. This chapter focuses on one of these aspects, namely the uneven regional distribution of entrepreneurial activities. Such a distribution is observed in many empirical studies (Fritsch and Niese 1999; Bade and Nerlinger 2000; Berger and Nerlinger 1997). Because of their influence on variables like competitiveness, innovativeness and the rate of unemployment, entrepreneurial activities have implications for the (economic) development of regions. Thus, there is a practical and political interest in understanding entrepreneurial activities in general and the regional factors that influence their distribution in particular. The aim is to be able to copy the success of some regions to others. Furthermore, there exists a motivation to analyse and to explain entrepreneurial behaviour and divergent regional development theoretically to gain some new insights into the ongoing processes. Most economic studies focus on an econometric analysis. Based on an available data set, variables are identified that are decisive for the start-up rate in a region and the impact new firms have on growth and development (Nerlinger 1998; Almus and Nerlinger 1998; Steil 1997). This line of research provided some interesting results but there are still some aspects lacking and the question remains open whether these factors are sufficient to explain the observed dynamic phenomena. In order to get a deeper understanding of the ongoing processes, it is worth