Entrepreneurship, Social Capital and Governance

Directions for the Sustainable Development and Competitiveness of Regions

New Horizons in Regional Science series

Edited by Charlie Karlsson, Professor Emeritus of the Economics of Technological Change, Jönköping International Business School, Jönköping University and Professor Emeritus of Industrial Economics, Blekinge Institute of Technology, the late Börje Johansson, formerly Professor of Economics, Jönköping International Business School, Jönköping University, Jönköping and Director, CESIS (Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies), Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden and the late Roger R. Stough, formerly School of Policy, Government and International Affairs, George Mason University, US

This book highlights the role of entrepreneurship, social capital and governance for regional economic development. In recent decades, many researchers have claimed that entrepreneurship is the most critical factor in sustaining regional economic growth. However, most entrepreneurship research is undertaken without considering the fundamental importance of the regional context. Other research has emphasized the role of social capital but there are substantial problems in empirically relating measures of social capital to regional economic development.