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- Westlund, Hans, et al.
(författare)
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Social Capital and Economic Performance : A Meta-analysis of 65 Studies
- 2010
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Ingår i: European Planning Studies. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0965-4313 .- 1469-5944. ; 18:6, s. 893-919
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper summarizes 15 years of empirical research at various spatial levels on social capital and economic performance. On the firm level, results are unambiguous: there is strong evidence of the impact of social capital on firms' performance. However, the results become less clear for spatial units with a large number of anonymous actors. The contradictory results of studies on national and regional levels can be explained in part by insufficient measures of the main component parts of social capital: social networks and the norms and values distributed among them. To develop measures for values like creativity, entrepreneurship and tolerance, and to find better measures for social networks, are the main challenges to future research.
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| 2. |
- Westlund, Hans, et al.
(författare)
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Economic Entrepreneurship, Startups and their Effects on Local development : The Case of Sweden
- 2011
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Ingår i: Uddevalla Symposium 2011. - Trollhättan : Department of Economics and IT, University West. ; , s. 451-470
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The current empirical entrepreneurship literature mainly shows a positive correlation between entrepreneurship (measured as the number of startups) and economic growth. However, the mechanisms by which entrepreneurship exerts its positive influence are not obvious. This paper studies the connections between startups and local development at the municipal level in Sweden 2000-2008. We use a unique database including not only total startups, but data on startups divided in six branches to study the impact of entrepreneurship on population and employment growth. Analyses are performed on all municipalities as well as by municipality type and by growth rate. In contrast to previous research, our results indicate that for several branch groups startup effects on growth may be more pronounced in low density areas than in urban agglomerations. This paper also contains one of the first empirical attempts to investigate the influence of local norms, values, networks and other spacebound assets on entrepreneurship propensity. We find that this “local Entrepreneurial Social Capital” (ESC) is highly correlated with startup frequency in Swedish municipalities.
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| 3. |
- Westlund, Hans, et al.
(författare)
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A New Urban-Rural Relationship Needs a New Social Capital
- 2010
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Ingår i: Social Capital and Development Trends in Rural Areas Vol. 5.. - Jönköping: : RUREG, Jönköping International Business School 2010. - 9789163372216 ; , s. 3-12
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)
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| 7. |
- Westlund, Hans, 1957-, et al.
(författare)
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The creative class, social capital and regional development in Japan
- 2010
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Ingår i: Review of Urban & Regional Development Studies. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 0917-0553 .- 1467-940X. ; 22:2/3, s. 89-108
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Do the social and cultural environments have any impact on regional development, expressed in terms of e.g. entrepreneurship, innovations and growth of new industries? In the current literature, two partly contradicting hypotheses can be discerned: 1. Florida's hypothesis, saying that a heterogeneous civil society with diverse values combined with tolerance is influencing regional growth in a positive way, and 2. Putnam's hypothesis, saying that a homogenous civil society with common norms and values and trust between its citizens is having a positive impact on regional development. This paper studies the validity of these two hypotheses on the current regional development in Japan. The analysis does not give any significant support to any of the hypotheses. A number of reasons for this lack of support for the hypotheses are discussed.
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| 10. |
- Westlund, Hans
(författare)
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Multidimensional Entrepreneurship : Theoretical Considerations and Swedish Empirics
- 2011
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Ingår i: Regional Science Policy & Practice. - Oxford : Wiley-Blackwell. - 1757-7802. ; 3:3, s. 199-218
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Entrepreneurship is often defined as merely the starting-up of new firms. There are obvious advantages in using this simplified definition, not least regarding measurement, but with such a definition there is also a great risk in missing important aspects of entrepreneurship and how it emerges and develops. Therefore, this paper takes its starting point in a broader definition according to which entrepreneurship is a chain of activities, including discovery of opportunities, evaluation of them and gathering resources in order to exploit these opportunities. Based on this definition, this paper examines entrepreneurship in six different spheres of society: economic; social; civil; political; academic; and innovative entrepreneurship. It can be assumed that the six forms of entrepreneurship mutually have impacts on each other, but that the directions of these impacts can vary. This paper makes a first investigation of the six dimensions of entrepreneurship in Sweden and the connections between them and measures of growth at the local government level and in various spatial areas. Economic entrepreneurship, measured in the form of start-ups, is having the strongest connections to growth of population and employment in all types of local government areas. Political entrepreneurship seems completely unimportant for growth of metropolitan and high-growth areas, but strongly correlated to growth in rural and low and medium growth areas.
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