Regional embeddedness is the key: Quantity and quality of regional business opportunity perception

Abstract

The perception of regional opportunities is the crucial starting point of the entrepreneurial process. To explain regional opportunity perception in general and innovative regional opportunity perception specifically is of key interest for steering regional entrepreneurial activities. It is known that entrepreneurship is a regional phenomenon; thus, the interrelation between individual inhabitants of a region and their regional context is of crucial relevance. A primary data collection in Germany assessed the regional embeddedness of inhabitants on four levels—actor, network, environment, and culture. The relation between these levels and the likelihood of opportunity perception is analysed by applying binary logistic regression analyses. The results suggest that regional embeddedness matters, although innovative regional opportunity perception is less dependent on regional embeddedness than regional opportunity perception in general. Derived from the results, entrepreneurship policies aiming at regional economic development, potentially profit most when policies focus on innovative entrepreneurial endeavours.