Abstract:
The launching of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) in 2015 opened a regional market of 600 million people. The formation of AEC facilitates the opportunities for entrepreneurs to offer goods and services in the
market. This naturally raises challenges for businesses and governments, also tighter competition. This paper aims, first to investigate the relationship between entrepreneurship ecosystems and national competitiveness, in the presence of entrepreneurship activities. Second, it aims to identify the most important pillars of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in fostering competitiveness.
The national level data is used from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor consortium and the World Economic Forum for the year 2015. The partial correlation coefficient and the regression analysis were applied. The results show that the relationship between entrepreneurship ecosystem and national competitiveness is intervened by level of entrepreneurship activities. The R&D transferred as well as the physical and services infrastructures are primary pillars of the ecosystem fostering the national competitiveness.
