Similarities and Differences in the European Entrepreneurial Activities

Abstract

Entrepreneurship is a key activity in the economy as it influences in the economic performance by creating new products, new solutions, new methods, new processes and new jobs. High levels entrepreneurship in economies have a positive impact on productivity and competitiveness. According to data from Eurostat (2018), in 2018 in Europe, 3.3 million jobs were created thanks to the 2.5 million companies that were created. Moreover, in 2018, there were a total of 25.3 million active enterprises employing a total of 131 million people. Some of the most relevant entrepreneurial hotpots in Europe are Estonia, Sweden, Latvia and the Netherlands (World Economic Forum, 2017). The main objective of this work is to identify and compare the different European geographical areas and evaluate the characteristics and variables that promote entrepreneurship from the experts' point of view. The GEM database was utilized to extract data for analysis in this research. The results obtained show differences between the Northern and Southern countries for the two analysis perspectives used.