Institutions and entrepreneurship

Abstract

This paper provides an analysis of how thinking about the links between institutions and entrepreneurship has evolved over time. In its incipient phase, research largely viewed entrepreneurship as being independent of institutions and shaped solely by the personality attributes and characteristics of the entrepreneur. However, a reaction to the entrepreneur in isolation views entrepreneurship as being shaped and influenced by context. Institutions, public policy and culture are key components of the entrepreneurial context. Most recently, new thinking suggests that the causality can also be reversed, in that entrepreneurship may shape the institutions characterizing the context.