M2713 - FRITSCH 9781848442641 PRINT.indd

Politicians expend a great deal of eff ort on attempting to reduce unemployment and stimulate economic growth. Policy programs specifi cally intended to create additional employment can be found at the regional, national, and supranational levels. Historically, such measures focused on the performance of large incumbent fi rms and more or less ignored the role that new businesses play in economic development. It was not until the late 1970s that policymakers became conscious of the important contributions that new businesses make to employment and growth. The last few decades have witnessed a considerable amount of empirical research on entrepreneurship, particularly on the formation and eff ects of new businesses, leading to substantial progress in this important fi eld. One important result of recent research is that the factors that infl uence entrepreneurship vary considerably between nations and, particularly, between regions. Entrepreneurship is a regional event. Regionspecifi c characteristics infl uence not only the level of new business formation, but also the type of new business that is created, for example innovative, knowledgeintensive, or highgrowth startups. Moreover, the eff ects of entrepreneurship on development can also vary between nations and regions. In fact, in some countries or regions, new business formation is accompanied by signifi cant employment growth, while the eff ect on employment may be negligible or even negative in other countries or regions. Currently, this variation in the eff ect of certain types of entrepreneurship on economic development and the role of the spatial environment are not well understood.