Regional differences in the influence of role-models: comparing the entrepreneurial process of rural Catalonia

Abstract

The paper examines the impact of entrepreneurial Role-Models upon the entrepreneurial process in rural areas with strong entrepreneurial history versus those that are not necessarily characterised by such a tradition. To attain this objective, we adopt a socio-cultural institutional approach to entrepreneurship. We carry out a Rare Events logit model using a robust Spanish dataset from 2003. The main contribution of the study indicates that the difference between entrepreneurial activity levels in rural Spain is in large part explained by the presence of entrepreneurial Role-Models favouring entrepreneurial activity in rural Catalonia, an area with strong entrepreneurial tradition.