Abstract
Literature shows that a high level of new firm creation significantly contributes to regional economic performance and is a clear sign of a thriving economy; hence, the understanding of the factors promoting new firm formation is crucial for economic development. Typically, literature has shown the influence of several variables such as the unemployment rate or the population density on firms’ birth rate. A more recent approach has been suggesting that creativity is one of the factors promoting new firm formation and, thus, economic growth. Richard Florida’s The Rise of the Creative Class (2002) was a seminal contribution for the recognition of the importance of creative people, creative industries, creative economies, and, thus, creativity. Many authors, inspired by this contribution, have been undertaking theoretical and empirical studies to analyze the role of creativity in economics. The aim of this chapter is to follow such contributions, discussing the impact of creativity on entrepreneurship in Portugal. A multivariate linear regression analysis is applied, explaining new firm formation across Portuguese regions with explanatory variables that include both creativity and diversity indexes, innovation indicators and the human capital dimension, as well as other control variables. Our results show little evidence of the influence of creativity on the birth of new firms, while pointing to the relevance of agglomeration effects for new firms’ formation and to the difficulty of immigrants in establishing a firm.
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Notes
- 1.
The concept of entrepreneurship first came into light centuries ago, but with different meanings. Kyrö (1996) points that in the seventeenth century the French verb “entrependre,” meaning being able to bring off some project or activity, began to be applied. Richard Cantillon (1755) was one of the first authors linking the broad concept of entrepreneurship with economics. Additionally, the timeless Adam Smith (1776), in his Wealth of Nations, designates entrepreneurs as those reacting to variations in the economy, while John Stuart-Mill (1848) stresses entrepreneurship as the point of origin of a private firm.
- 2.
According to Florida (2002), the super-creative core is defined as: computer and mathematical occupations; architecture and engineering occupations; life, physical, and social science occupations; education, training, and library occupations; and arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media occupations.
- 3.
The European Values Study is a large-scale, cross-national, and longitudinal survey research program on basic human values, providing insights into the ideas, beliefs, preferences, attitudes, values and opinions of citizens all over Europe since 1981 (http://www.europeanvaluesstudy.eu/).
- 4.
The Hukou index of openness is defined as the proportion of the population without a locally registered Hukou. Those with a locally registered Hukou are always permanent residents and receive local economic, social and political benefits, such as social welfare, education and voting rights. Those who live in a jurisdictional area without a local Hukou, however, are always “marginal” workers or visitors. If a large proportion of the population of a region does not have a locally registered Hukou, this indicates that a large proportion of the population is from outside the region.
- 5.
Positive affect has been found to influence many aspects of cognition and behavior, including those directly relevant to activities that entrepreneurs perform in launching new ventures. Positive affect was measured using the 10-item scale from the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) developed and validated by Watson et al. (1988). The PANAS scale has been used to assess respondents’ general feelings and emotions (i.e., how they feel on average).
- 6.
Portugal has 30 NUTS 3: Alto Trás-os-Montes, Ave, Cávado, Douro, Entre Douro e Vouga, Grande Porto, Minho-Lima, Tâmega, Baixo Mondego, Baixo Vouga, Beira Interior Norte, Beira Interior Sul, Cova da Beira, Dão-Lafões, Médio Tejo, Oeste, Pinhal Interior Norte, Pinhal Litoral, Pinhal Interior Sul, Serra da Estrela, Grande Lisboa, Península de Setúbal, Alentejo Central, Alentejo Litoral, Alto Alentejo, Baixo Alentejo, Lezíria do Tejo, Algarve, Açores and Madeira (INE 2002). We exclude Pinhal Interior Sul, Serra da Estrela, the Island of Açores and the Island of Madeira since the number of new firms during the period 2004–2010 was quite small.
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Olim, A., Mota, I., Silva, S.T. (2015). The Influence of Creativity on Entrepreneurship: The Portuguese Case. In: Baptista, R., Leitão, J. (eds) Entrepreneurship, Human Capital, and Regional Development. International Studies in Entrepreneurship, vol 31. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12871-9_11
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