Entrepreneurial Progress: Climbing the Entrepreneurial Ladder in Europe and the United States

This study investigates which countries have the highest potential to achieve entrepreneurial progress. This progress is defined as an entrepreneurial ladder with five successive steps: ‘never thought about starting a business’, ‘thinking about it’, ‘taking steps’, ‘running a young business’ and ‘running a mature business’. The influences of individual-level and country-level variables on the progression through these stages are analysed. Data from twenty-seven European countries and the United States are used (2007 Flash Eurobarometer Survey on Entrepreneurship). Findings show that in the United States many people think about setting up a business, whereas Europeans are better at achieving higher levels of engagement. Country differences can be explained mainly by levels of risk tolerance and economic development. A country's level of administrative complexity does not play a role, but individual perceptions of this complexity are a hindering factor.