Zoltan J. Acs

The London School of Economics and Political Science | LSE · Department of Management

Plain English Summary This paper identifies the adolescent tech entrepreneurial learning ecosystem and finds that it has a significant impact on individuals’ tech entrepreneurial career. Many are fascinated by tech entrepreneurs who have not only led breakthrough innovations but also greatly influenced human life. Relying on both biographic data of...

The authors discuss how increased globalization, economic complexity and dynamism exacerbate contradictions between theoretical and empirical-driven arguments. In this discussion, the authors offer an analysis of the entrepreneurship paradox—that is, entrepreneurship is good for the economy but entrepreneurial activity is consistently higher in les...

The world is today a more digitally integrated place; however, digital inequality still prevails and its repercussions (e.g., poor access to information, e-commerce, remote education, remote work, and remote healthcare) have aggravated with the Covid-19 pandemic. In this debate, Lafuente, Acs, and Szerb adopt a power-law approach to scrutinize digi...

The authors discuss the importance of composite indicators for capturing the complexity and multidimensionality of different phenomena and propose an analysis based on the penalty for bottleneck (PFB) method to show how plausible policy recommendations can be extracted from composite indicators. The basic problem of the policy application of compos...

In this book the authors explore and debate through a fine lens the economic, social, and policy approaches that characterize fruitful research on entrepreneurial ecosystems with economically meaningful implications for policy. The collection of chapters included in the book is an important manifestation that presents various challenges that exist...

The authors discuss economic development policy facing the burgeoning entrepreneurial ecosystem research. They aim to answer four questions. First, how are entrepreneurial ecosystems different from regional innovation systems and clusters, two related frameworks that had been vastly popular among economic development policy makers prior to the rise...

We employ the ‘benefit of the doubt’ approach rooted in non-parametric techniques to evaluate the entrepreneurial ecosystem of 71 countries for the period 2016. By scrutinizing the relative efficiency of countries’ entrepreneurial ecosystems, the proposed analysis of composite indicators allows the computation of endogenous (country-specific) weigh...

This study evaluates the quality of the digital platform economy at the global scale by employing a network model rooted in nonparametric linear techniques (data envelopment analysis) on a sample of 116 countries for 2019. The proposed model is in accordance with the geographic diversity (country heterogeneity) and the multilayered structure charac...

The information technology revolution (ITR) propelled a shift from the industrial age to the digital age. While in the industrial age it was easy to disentangle the distinctions between the city/region and the country based on proximity, in the digital age this is much harder. The digital age is characterized by the rise of multisided platform orga...

The application of big data, new algorithms, and cloud computing is creating a digital platform economy (DPE) built around platform organizations and their platform-based ecosystem. We use the DPE Index to examine Europe’s digital efficiency across countries and explain its global position by analyzing Brexit and the electric vehicle industry. We a...

We evaluate the main characteristics of the digital ecosystem of North American (USA and Canada) and 16 Latin American economies for 2019. By employing the ‘benefit of the doubt’ model rooted in non-parametric techniques to scrutinize a composite indicator designed to assess the digital ecosystem (i.e., the Digital Platform Economy (DPE) index), th...

While ecosystem theories and concepts have a relatively long history with both entrepreneurial ecosystems (Acs et al., 2017) and digital ecosystems (Li et al., 2012; Weill & Woerner, 2015), the digital entrepreneurship ecosystem and a platform-based economy concepts have emerged only recently (Elia et al., 2020; Nambisan, 2017; Sahut et al., 2019)....

The recent digital and information-technology revolution has had a major impact on entrepreneurship. Platform-based developments in particular have helped to drastically reduce transaction costs and increase the appearance of new business models. This Schumpeterian type of organizational innovation has given birth to trillion dollar businesses like...

In this section, we provide a basic analysis of digital entrepreneurship, which we called the DPE Index, for 116 countries from all continents and in all development stages. The calculation steps of the DPE Index are found in Appendix B.

The transition from a managed economy in the twentieth century to a platform economy in the twenty-first century is perhaps best summed up by Historian Niall Ferguson (2019) in his book The Square and the Tower: Networks and Power from the Freemasons to Facebook. Ferguson starts his story in Italian city states, where a tower sits in the middle of...

Facilitating digital and entrepreneurship ecosystems is high on many government policy agendas. Many nations focus on developing the digital infrastructure, maintaining digital freedom and privacy, protecting users from cybercrime and piracy, improving the population’s digital literacy, and supporting technology-related startups. However, enhanceme...

This book presents the 2020 Digital Platform Economy Index (DPE Index). The DPE Index integrates two separate but related literatures on ecosystems, namely, the digital ecosystem and the entrepreneurial ecosystem. This new framework situates digital entrepreneurship within the broader context of users, platforms, and institutions, such that two bio...

Plain English Summary Some years, like some poets and politicians, are singled out for fame far beyond the common lot and 1971 was clearly such a year. One of the events of 1971 was the inventions of the microprocessor, a computer on a chip. This invention led to the creation of the personal computer, the internet, the smart phone, and cloud comput...

This study employs the “Benefit of the Doubt” method rooted in non-parametric techniques to evaluate the digital ecosystem of 116 countries for the year 2019. By scrutinizing the relative efficiency of countries’ digital ecosystem based on the Digital Platform Economy index (DPE index), the proposed analysis of composite indicators allows the compu...

A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-021-00467-8

We evaluate how country-level entrepreneurship—measured via the national system of entrepreneurship—triggers total factor productivity (TFP) by increasing the effects of Kirznerian and Schumpeterian entrepreneurship. Using a database for 45 developed and developing countries during 2002–2013, we employ non-parametric techniques to build a world tec...

This paper demonstrates how the Regional Entrepreneurship and Development Index (REDI) can be used to optimize local entrepreneurial discovery processes, in a manner which can support Smart Specialization Strategies (S3). While S3 industry prioritization is based on the identification of local strengths, regional improvement can be achieved by impr...

The first version of the Global Entrepreneurship Index (GEI), at that time called the Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index (GEDI), was issued in 2009. Since then, GEI has been published in every year. Altogether, we have eleven books reporting about the level of the entrepreneurship ecosystem for countries all over the five continents. The...

The author of this chapter, Zoltan Acs, is one of the people who has known David the longest and knows him well. Although they had very different backgrounds and took very different paths, their career arcs led them to meet and become colleagues in Berlin in the 80’s and they have been close friends ever since, with Acs even serving as the best man...

This study for the first time addresses generation effects on eight entrepreneur types across four U.S. generations: Traditionalists, Boomers, Gen‐Xers, and Millennials. It adopts hierarchical age‐period‐cohort (HAPC) models using multilevel mixed‐effects logistic regression models with random period effect controls and the same‐age comparison betw...

The literature on the relationship between age and entrepreneurship has been inconclusive. This study for the first time examines this relationship by extending the occupational choice literature to eight entrepreneur types and four generational modification effects in the USA. Multilevel mixed-effect logistic regression models are estimated to exa...

This is the annual report of the Global Entrepreneurship Index. The Global Entrepreneurship Index is a composite indicator of the health of the entrepreneurship ecosystem in a given country. The GEI measures both the quality of entrepreneurship and the extent and depth of the supporting entrepreneurial ecosystem. We’ve identified the 14 components...

Purpose: Increased globalization, economic complexity and dynamism exacerbate contradictions between theoretical and empirical-driven arguments. This study analyzes the entrepreneurship paradox-i.e., entrepreneurship is good for the economy but entrepreneurial activity is consistently higher in less developed and developing countries over time-thro...

We analyze conceptually and in an empirical counterpart the relationship between economic growth, factor inputs, institutions, and entrepreneurship. In particular, we investigate whether entrepreneurship and institutions, in combination in an ecosystem, can be viewed as a “missing link” in an aggregate production function analysis of cross-country...

We analyze conceptually and in an empirical counterpart the relationship between economic growth, factor inputs, institutions, and entrepreneurship. In particular, we investigate whether entrepreneurship and institutions, in combination in an ecosystem, can be viewed as a Bmissing link^ in an aggregate production function analysis of cross-country...

A data-driven approach to improving entrepreneurial ecosystems begins with taking stock of the current state of the ecosystem through the lens of cross-country comparable data. However, the job does not end there. Once the strengths and weaknesses of an ecosystem have been identified, it is helpful to examine their underlying causes (see our origin...

In previous GEI publications, we have described the Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index methodology in detail. Here we describe the structure of the dataset and a short summary of the GEI methodology. As compared to the previous versions, the institutional components of the GEI have been reviewed and changed. Here, we provide a descriptio...

As a national phenomenon, entrepreneurship is much more than the mere rate of new businesses or self-employment rates. Within a territorial context, any definition of entrepreneurship should take into consideration the interconnectedness between individual actions and the institutional setting backing entrepreneurial actions which, ultimately, fuel...

The pillars of entrepreneurship in the ecosystem are many and complex. While a widely accepted definition of entrepreneurship is lacking, there is general agreement that the concept has numerous dimensions. We take this into account in creating the entrepreneurship index. Some businesses have a larger impact on markets, create more new jobs, and gr...

When the unemployment rate in the United States was 10% during the great recession, it was considered a catastrophe. However, the unemployment rate in most MENA countries is close to 30% and even higher in some other countries. This is a disaster for many parts of the world. It leads to desperation and violence as millions of youth struggle to surv...

While a focus on the entrepreneurial ecosystem may seem a novel approach to development, it is consistent with and even complementary to older, more traditional development strategies. As developing economies move from centralized economies to market economies, enterprise and entrepreneurship become important. “The emerging world, long a source of...

The Global Entrepreneurship Index provides a detailed look at the health of nations’ entrepreneurial ecosystems. We have developed an index methodology that links countries’ entrepreneurial framework conditions with individual-level entrepreneurial attitudes, abilities, and aspirations. Our composite index gives policymakers a tool for understandin...

Facilitating entrepreneurship is high on many government policy agendas. Policies that support entrepreneurship have become increasingly sophisticated over time, as governments have moved from facilitating the creation of new firms toward supporting high-growth businesses. Many governments currently talk about support ecosystems that cover the enti...

In previous GEI publications, we have described the Global Entrepreneurship Index methodology in detail. Here we describe the structure of the dataset, and a short summary of the GEI methodology.

In this section, we compare the entrepreneurial performance of countries within regions. As we have already seen, the entrepreneurial performance of countries can vary widely across the world. This is because, for example, countries in different stages of development may exhibit similar features, whereas differences across stages of development are...

Last year we pointed out an important challenge for the future of the global economy: Whereas rich countries will be challenged to increase their economic productivity to sustain current standards of living as their populations rapidly age, low-income economies will need to integrate more than two billion young adults into the world economy by 2050...

The modern temple of the entrepreneurial ecosystem is like many temples of the ancient world: both are held up by pillars. Like the pillars of ancient temples—made of sand and limestone held together by cement—the pillars of the economic ecosystem are made of individuals and institutions that are held together by the “cement” of incentives created...

The perhaps broadest approach to economic performance at the level of a country is the concept of national systems of innovation. Despite the emergence of a compelling literature identifying the persistence of innovative activities and country specific institutional effects, evidence on the nature of national systems of innovation is still missing...

When the unemployment rate in the United States was 10% during the great recession it was considered a catastrophe. However, the unemployment rate in most MENA countries is close to 30% and even higher in some other countries. This is a disaster for many parts of the world. It leads to desperation and violence as millions of youth struggle to survi...

The modern temple of the entrepreneurial ecosystem is like many temples of the ancient world: both are held up by pillars. Like the pillars of ancient temples—made of sand and limestone held together by cement—the pillars of the economic ecosystem are made of individuals and institutions that are held together by the “cement” of incentives created...

In this section, we compare the entrepreneurial performance of countries within regions. As we have already seen, the entrepreneurial performance of countries can vary widely across the world. This is because, for example, countries in different stages of development may exhibit similar features, whereas differences across stages of development are...

In previous GEI publications, we have described the Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index methodology in detail. Here we describe the structure of the dataset, and a short summary of the GEI methodology. As compared to the previous versions the institutional components of the GEI have been reviewed and changed. Here, we provide a descriptio...

Facilitating entrepreneurship is high on many government policy agendas. Policies that support entrepreneurship have become increasingly sophisticated over time, as governments have moved from facilitating the creation of new firms toward supporting high-growth businesses. Many governments currently talk about support ecosystems that cover the enti...

While a focus on the entrepreneurial ecosystem may seem a novel approach to development, it is consistent with and even complementary to older, more traditional development strategies. As developing economies move from centralized to market economies, enterprise and entrepreneurship become increasingly important. “The emerging world, long a source...

In its most abstract sense, an ecosystem is a biotic community, encompassing its physical environment, and all the interactions possible in the complex of living and nonliving components. Economics has always been about systems that explain differential output and outcomes. However, economics has generally ignored the role of entrepreneurship in ec...

This paper employs Frederick Jackson Turner’s Frontier Thesis of American democracy to construct a framework for understanding the U.S. university campus as an entrepreneurial ecosystem. One question that immediately comes to mind when studying ecosystem performance is what the proper unit of analysis is: the country, the state, the city, the regio...

This year's Global Entrepreneurship Index features an exploration of digital entrepreneurship ecosystems. The Global Entrepreneurship Index both captures the context features of entrepreneurship and fills a gap in the measurement of development. Building on recent advances in entrepreneurship and economic development, the authors have created an in...

Professor Philippe Aghion is the 2016 recipient of the Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research, consisting of 100,000 Euros and a statuette designed by the internationally renowned Swedish sculptor Carl Milles. He is one of the most influential researchers worldwide in economics in the last couple of decades. His research has advanced our unders...

Abstract: We explore empirically the relationship between economic growth, factor inputs, institutions, and entrepreneurship. In particular, we investigate whether entrepreneurship and institutions, either independently or in combination in an ecosystem, represent the “missing link” in explaining cross country differences in productivity. To do thi...

We analyze conceptually and in an empirical counterpart the relationship between economic growth, factor inputs, institutions, and entrepreneurship. In particular, we investigate whether entrepreneurship and institutions, in combination in an ecosystem, can be viewed as a “missing link” in an aggregate production function analysis of cross-country...

This brief captures the contextual features of entrepreneurship by measuring entrepreneurial attitudes, abilities, and aspirations at both the individual- and country-level. Featuring data from the 2016 Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index (GEDI), which measures the quality and scale of the entrepreneurial process in 133 countries around t...

This paper tests the efficiency hypothesis of the knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship. Using a comprehensive database for 63 countries for 2012, we employ data envelopment analysis to directly test how countries capitalize on their available entrepreneurial resources. Results support the efficiency hypothesis of knowledge spillover entre...

In previous publications, we have described the Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index methodology in detail. In this chapter, we describe the GEDI structure, the dataset used to create it, and a short summary of the GEDI methodology.

Research on entrepreneurship is mainly focused on the individual, and research on innovation has been mainly focused on institutions even though we know that both agency and context matter. To better integrate the two approaches, Acs et al. (Research Policy 43:476–494, 2014. doi:10. 1016/ j. respol. 2013. 08. 016) introduced the national systems of...

How well one country performs relative to others in terms of entrepreneurship is a question of some importance. In this section, we address this question for different country groupings. We do it by groups because the quality and contribution of a country’s entrepreneurship vary systematically in accordance with its level of economic development. W...

Facilitating entrepreneurship is high on many government policy agendas. Policies that support entrepreneurship have become increasingly sophisticated over time, as governments have moved from facilitating the creation of new firms toward supporting high-growth businesses. Many governments currently talk about support ecosystems that cover the enti...

This volume provides a detailed look at the entrepreneurial ecosystem of different nations by combining individual data with institutional components. The composite index presented in this book, the Global Entrepreneurship Index (GEI), aims to measure the quality and scale of the entrepreneurial process in 130 countries around the world. The author...

The Global Entrepreneurship Index provides a detailed look at the health of nations’ entrepreneurial ecosystems. We have developed an index methodology that links countries’ entrepreneurial framework conditions with individual-level entrepreneurial attitudes, abilities, and aspirations. Our composite index gives policymakers a tool for understandin...

This paper presents a regional application of the Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index (GEDI) methodology of Acs et al. (2013) to examine the level of entrepreneurship across Hungary's seven NUTS-2 level regions between 2006 and 2012. The Regional Entrepreneurship and Development Index (REDI) has been constructed for capturing the individu...

Because countries have different institutional structures and provide different incentives for entrepreneurs, we believe it is most useful to think of entrepreneurship as a national system. We therefore present the framework for a National System of Entrepreneurship and the global entrepreneurship and development index (GEDI) as ways to evaluate su...

Our article develops a Regional Entrepreneurship and Development Index (REDI) for capturing the contextual features of the entrepreneurial ecosystems. Building on the National Systems of Entrepreneurship Theory, REDI advances our understanding to profile Entrepreneurial Ecosystems. An important aspect of the REDI method is the Penalty for Bottlenec...