The level of infrastructure support for entrepreneurship: opinions of experts from various countries

Abstract

Purpose. The purpose of the study was to assess the effectiveness of the main infrastructure elements of business development in various countries, according to experts from these countries. These elements were: knowledge and technology transfer infrastructure; commercial and professional infrastructure; production and information infrastructure; market infrastructure; institutions providing easy access to existing markets; and social and cultural infrastructure. Methods. The research is based on methods of economic analysis, analogies, generalizations, classification, system, and structural approaches. Information from the Global entrepreneurship monitoring project report for 54 countries was used as input data. The estimation of the distribution of the values of indicators reflecting the opinions of experts from these countries on the effectiveness of the six main infrastructure elements of business development was based on modeling of empirical data using normal distribution density functions. Results. During the study, the average values of indicators that characterize experts’ opinions on a scale of ten about the effectiveness of each of the six key infrastructure elements of business development, and the intervals of their changes, characteristic for the majority of countries were determined. It is proved that the highest average value for countries is marked by an indicator that, according to experts, characterizes the efficiency of production and information infrastructure. And the lowest average value is typical for such an indicator as the efficiency of the knowledge and technology transfer infrastructure. The tasks of identifying countries with high and low levels of efficiency of each of the main elements have been solved. It is shown that the values of each of the six indicators under consideration are significantly differentiated across 54 countries. The absence of links between the values of each of the considered indicators and such factors as the level of income of the population in specific countries and their geographical location is confirmed. Scientific novelty. New knowledge about the effectiveness of infrastructure elements of business development in various countries has been obtained.