Entrepreneurship, creative industries and regional dynamics in Spain

Abstract

Depending on the country or region, the amount of entrepreneurial activity differs greatly. In order to appreciate these differences, a general supply and demand scheme has been suggested (Verkeul et al. 2001) to measure the rate of entrepreneurship of an economy in the long term. This rate can be seen to depend on the level of development (Belso, 2004), the economic growth (Audretsch et al., 2002) and the unemployment rate (Thurik and Verheul, 2002). However, the degree of competitive creativity linked to the entrepreneurial activity in its early, commencing and establishing stages, particularly from a regional perspective, is not so well known. This is calculated using various indicators based on entrepreneurial decisions derived from the timing, sector and location opportunity when starting a business (GEM, 2006), as well as others that assess the commitment to innovation in dynamic markets generating emerging products. This paper analyses entrepreneurial activity from this completely new perspective, applying this to the Spanish regions (NUTS-1), with the intention of providing some useful results for research in this area.