Entrepreneurial Environment in Slovakia: Multi-Perspective Comparison with Innovation-Driven Economies

Entrepreneurial environment is a phenomenon that substantially influences quantity and quality of entrepreneurial activity in an economy. In order to create favorable conditions where individuals and groups of individuals can flourish their entrepreneurial efforts, policy makers need to know the absolute as well as comparative strengths and weaknesses in the relevant international context. In order to answer this question, we have executed a comprehensive multi-perspective analysis (using data from seven international initiatives) of entrepreneurial environment in Slovakia. Building on the institutional theory, we examined its regulative, normative, cognitive and conducive dimensions. To obtain the contextual picture, we compared Slovakia with group of innovation-driven economies that serve as a relevant and desirable benchmark for our country. Our findings suggest that Slovakia lacks especially in conducive dimension (particularly important for innovative entrepreneurship) as well as in several regulatory aspects, while we exhibit comparatively favorable levels of certain cognitive and normative attributes (such as self-confidence, network or uncertainty avoidance). (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.