Perception of entrepreneurial ecosystem in India: Influence of industrial versus personal context of entrepreneurs

Abstract

Decisions on new-venture creation are likely to be influenced by the entrepreneurs’ perception of the business environment. Hence it is important, especially for policy-makers, to understand the perceptions of entrepreneurs on the business environment of a country. The BRIC countries being the hub of a vibrant group of emerging economies, a group of researchers from these countries and Italy have initiated a study to understand the general perceptions of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in these countries. The present paper uses a part of the data collected by the India research team in order to understand the Indian entrepreneurs’ perception of the business environment of the country. Based on the responses of 282 entrepreneurs on 11 dimensions of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, it was observed that the more favourable perceptions are on the individual competencies, professional peer-group support and the socio-cultural support. The industry and demographic sub-group analyses have also yielded interesting results. Compared to the industry context, there is a greater number of dimensions being different for the demographic subgroups. However, these are concentrated on the age and age-related variables. It seems that the generation-gap is the major influencer of perceptions.