Digital Affordances and Entrepreneurial Dynamics: New Evidence from European Regions

The advent of digital economy has brought about major changes, and understanding their impacts on entrepreneurial dynamics is a challenge for managers and policymakers. We adopt Richard Florida's three Ts (talent-tolerance- technology) framework for a region and evaluate how the interplay between technology and digital affordances shape regional entrepreneurial dynamics. Using data on 112 European regions in 21 countries (2008–2015) we distinguish between the role that technology and digital affordances play on new business formation, survival and high-growth employment. We find that complementarities between digital, culture and human capital affordances within the 3 T framework serve as a conduit for a net entrepreneurial entry, while the complementarities between technology and human capital affordances reduce high-growth employment. Joint negative effect of a technology and human capital affordances on high-growth employment and business survival is seen as lack of required skills in high-tech industries to facilitate technology diffusion. Our findings offer policy and managerial implications