ABSTRACT
It is no simple task to examine how various socio-economic events may be linked to changes in regional factors as well as changes in firm founding activity (analysed in previous chapters). Nevertheless, it seems worthwhile to pursue such an analysis, given that it may contribute towards the construction and provision of better policy. This chapter focuses on one specific event that has the potential to change the regional conditions for start-ups: the founding of a small firm can serve as a so-called ‘role model’ for other regional agents.1 As was already noted in Sections 2.1.5 and 2.3.3, such role models are a pull-factor and influence the willingness of agents to found a firm. We think that they have an even wider impact on the founding process, an argument that we examine empirically in the subsequent chapter. The chosen event, defined here as the founding of a small firm or the appearance of a role model, serves as an example of how the relations and processes discussed in Chapter 2 can be more thoroughly explored. This event is especially worth examining because of the complex processes involved. For instance, information transmission is mainly based on the social relations and interactions of regional agents. Here psychological aspects, such as mental models, have to be considered. As Denzau and North define these, ‘The mental models are the internal representations that individual cognitive systems create to interpret the environment’ (Denzau and North 1994: 4).2 We argue that these can contribute to over-shooting effects in regional firm founding activities.
