Understanding The Relationship Between Entrepreneurial Spirit And Global Competitiveness: Implications For Indonesia

Abstract

Entrepreneurship has been recognized as a key contributor to the economic development of a country. Interestingly, while developed countries are lower in entrepreneurship characteristics than developing countries, the former have higher levels of global competitiveness than the latter (based on Global Entrepreneurship Monitor or GEM). Given this background, this study investigates the relationship between entrepreneurial spirit and global competitiveness at the national level. Entrepreneurial spirit is measured by entrepreneurial attitudes (comprising social value, personal attribute, and goal orientation) and entrepreneurial activities (total early entrepreneurial activities and established business ownerships), taken from the GEM’s 2015 data on national entrepreneurship. Global competitiveness is measured using the Global Competitiveness Index, taken from the World Economic Forum (WEF) for 2015. The study finds that all the entrepreneurial spirit factors have a negative relationship with global competitiveness, except for goal orientation (consisting of three indicators: growth, innovation, and internationalization, all of which have a positive and significant relationship with global competitiveness). All the relationships are statistically significant, except for social value. Implications for Indonesia are discussed.