ABSTRACT
In recent years a strong belief that ‘entrepreneurship’ is a crucial driver of economic growth has emerged among both scholars and policy makers (see, for instance, Audretsch et al. 2006; Koellinger and Thurik, 2012; and, for a comprehensive survey, Van Praag and Versloot, 2007). However, moving from macro-economic scenarios to the micro foundations of entrepreneurship, since the seminal contribution by Baumol (1990) we have known that ‘Shumpeterian innovative entrepreneurs’ coexist with ‘defensive and necessity entrepreneurs’, the latter being those who enter a new business not because of market opportunities and innovative ideas, but merely because they need an income to survive.
