Cultural values and start-up rates in the Spanish provinces

Countries with similar economic situations exhibit persistently different entrepreneurial activity levels. Cultural values have been called for to explain this difference. They may condition individuals’ behaviour and significantly affect the society’s entrepreneurship rates. Nevertheless, few empirical studies have focused on this relationship at the regional or local level. This paper tries to fill this gap in the literature by analysing how specific cultural values (as defined by Schwartz, 1999) can influence the number of start-ups in the different Spanish provinces. Findings indicate the effect to be significant, contributing to explain up to 65.6% of the variance in start-up rates.Junta de Andalucía. Consejería de Innovación, Ciencia y Empresas P08-SEJ-0354