Country-level efficiency and the index of dynamic entrepreneurship: Contributions from an efficiency approach

Technological Forecasting and Social Change. 2021. Vol. 162. No. January 2021. P. 1–13.

Dionisio E. A., Inácio Júnior E., Brandao Fischer B.

The objective of this article is to address aggregate performance indicators in National Systems of Entrepreneurship from an efficiency perspective. Our assessment is based on Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) applied to data from the Index of Dynamic Entrepreneurship (IDE) for a sample of 60 countries. Besides providing information on the efficiency score of each country, this approach allowed the identification of benchmarks for best practices and the construction of an efficiency ranking. Findings offer guidance for refined entrepreneurship-oriented policies that take into account characteristics of heterogeneous socioeconomic contexts. Surprisingly, top-performing countries in the IDE ranking have relatively inefficient ecosystems while countries in the lowest positions generally demonstrate higher efficiency scores. Implications of our research encompass the need for policymakers to develop more in-depth knowledge concerning their own entrepreneurial ecosystems’ attributes and productivity. Efficient systemic outcomes can be obtained through different configurations, so a hierarchical view of attributes limits the adequacy of policies for different contexts.

Keywords: key performance indicators, entrepreneurial ecosystems, efficiency frontier, dynamic entrepreneurship, Index of systemic conditions for dynamic entrepreneurship, National Systems of Entrepreneurship

Publication based on the results of: Research on the efficiency of innovation generation processes: resources and factors (2021)