The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Wired in? Genetic traits and entrepreneurship around the world

Wired in? Genetic traits and entrepreneurship around the world
Wired in? Genetic traits and entrepreneurship around the world
Entrepreneurship is a cornerstone of technological innovation and economic development. We posit that the genetic make-up of countries (populations) will affect the extent of their engagement in entrepreneurial activities, in addition to the factors showcased by prior literature (e.g., institutions, culture, socio-economic, demographic, or historical). To test this conjecture we employ a country-level genetic measure that is commonly associated with novelty- and risk- seeking behaviours using the frequency of the 2- and 7-repeat allele variants of the DRD4 exon III gene. Our results confirm a systematic, positive association between genetics and entrepreneurial activities across 97 countries using a large set of controls and battery of robustness tests. These findings reconcile the “nature versus nurture” debate with respect to entrepreneurial activities around the world and provide some valuable insights on the significance of different determinants of entrepreneurship.
0040-1625
Krammer, Marius
24ce872e-5044-4846-bb35-88e12c74c854
Krammer, Marius
24ce872e-5044-4846-bb35-88e12c74c854

Krammer, Marius (2021) Wired in? Genetic traits and entrepreneurship around the world. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 168, [120788]. (doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2021.120788).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Entrepreneurship is a cornerstone of technological innovation and economic development. We posit that the genetic make-up of countries (populations) will affect the extent of their engagement in entrepreneurial activities, in addition to the factors showcased by prior literature (e.g., institutions, culture, socio-economic, demographic, or historical). To test this conjecture we employ a country-level genetic measure that is commonly associated with novelty- and risk- seeking behaviours using the frequency of the 2- and 7-repeat allele variants of the DRD4 exon III gene. Our results confirm a systematic, positive association between genetics and entrepreneurial activities across 97 countries using a large set of controls and battery of robustness tests. These findings reconcile the “nature versus nurture” debate with respect to entrepreneurial activities around the world and provide some valuable insights on the significance of different determinants of entrepreneurship.

Text
SK_EG_Genetics_entrepreneurship - Accepted Manuscript
Download (1MB)

More information

Accepted/In Press date: 31 March 2021
e-pub ahead of print date: 20 April 2021
Published date: 20 April 2021

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 497791
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/497791
ISSN: 0040-1625
PURE UUID: 67e347fa-b0a5-4238-b071-ca5e2a696d90
ORCID for Marius Krammer: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-5773-9514

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 31 Jan 2025 17:40
Last modified: 04 Feb 2025 05:01

Export record

Altmetrics

Contributors

Author: Marius Krammer ORCID iD

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×