TOWARD A CONFIGURATIONAL UNDERSTANDING OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP USING QUALITATIVE COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS A dissertation presented by Elisabeth S.C. Berger, M. Sc. To University of Hohenheim The faculty of Business, Economics and Social Science Institute of Marketing & Management Entrepreneurship (570 C) In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of doctor oeconomiae (Dr. oec.) 2016 Supervisor: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Andreas Kuckertz Date of Disputation: May 30, 2016 Faculty Dean: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Dirk Hachmeister Supervisor: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Andreas Kuckertz Second Reviewer: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Hahn II Acknowledgements First and foremost I express my deepest gratitude to my Doktorvater Univ.-Prof. Dr. Andreas Kuckertz for the effort and time invested in the supervision of my dissertation. He has provided the best guidance, was always open for constructive scientific discussions and at the same left me with sufficient freedom in order to learn the ropes as a young scientist. I also thank him for introducing me to the configurational perspective, which has changed my world view on complexity. I also thank Univ.-Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Hahn for accepting to be the second reviewer of my dissertation. Thanks also to my colleagues from the entrepreneurship research group for the constructive discussions. The articles included in this dissertation are the result of the collaboration with co-authors, constructive criticism from reviewers and conference participants, for which I thank all of them. Furthermore, I acknowledge the support from the thematic network Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Finance (INEF) funded by the DAAD for enabling my research stay at Texas A&M University, which has been very motivating to strive for academic excellence. Many thanks to my friends for their support and distraction, especially to Maren, Franziska and Ruth who have inspired and motivated me to pursue my academic aspirations. A special thanks to Julien for his encouragement and being my source of relaxation. I thank my team mates from the Stuttgart Rugby Club for being the greatest physical counterpart to the sedentary academic life. Lastly, I am deeply grateful to my parents and sisters for their support, endless love and for bringing me up in a spirit of entrepreneurship and aspiration. Hohenheim, June 2016 Elisabeth S.C. Berger III Table of content Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................... III Table of content ........................................................................................................................... IV 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 1 1.1. Complexity and entrepreneurship .................................................................................................. 1 1.2. Configurational approach and qualitative comparative analysis ................................................... 3 1.3. Structure of this thesis ................................................................................................................... 5 1.4. Key findings .................................................................................................................................. 9 2. Is qualitative comparative analysis an emerging method? – structured literature review and bibliometric analysis of QCA applications in business & management research ........... 15 2.1. Relevance of QCA in business & management and research objective ...................................... 16 2.2. Methodology ............................................................................................................................... 17 2.2.1. Identification of research ..................................................................................................... 17 2.2.2. Selection of articles ............................................................................................................. 18 2.2.3. Citation analysis .................................................................................................................. 19 2.2.4. Bibliometric coupling .......................................................................................................... 20 2.3. Findings: The state of QCA applications in B&M research ........................................................ 20 2.3.1. (Why) is QCA applied in B&M research? .......................................................................... 20 2.3.2. How is QCA applied in B&M research? ............................................................................. 23 2.3.3. What is the knowledge base of QCA applications in B&M? .............................................. 29 2.3.4. What is the structure of the research front? ......................................................................... 31 2.4. Implications and conclusion ........................................................................................................ 34 3. What drives entrepreneurship? A configurational analysis of the determinants of entrepreneurship in innovation-driven economies .................................................................... 43 3.1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 43 3.2. Theoretical background ............................................................................................................... 45 3.2.1. The importance of entrepreneurship for innovation-driven economies............................... 45 3.2.2. Necessity-driven versus opportunity-driven entrepreneurship ............................................ 46 3.2.3. Determinants of entrepreneurial activity ............................................................................. 47 3.3. Method......................................................................................................................................... 52 3.3.1. Data ..................................................................................................................................... 52 IV 3.3.2. Analytical strategy ............................................................................................................... 53 3.3.3. Outcomes and calibration .................................................................................................... 55 3.3.4. Conditions and calibration ................................................................................................... 56 3.4. Results ......................................................................................................................................... 57 3.4.1. Descriptive analysis ............................................................................................................. 57 3.4.2. Configurations predicting opportunity entrepreneurship..................................................... 58 3.4.3. Configurations predicting necessity entrepreneurship......................................................... 59 3.5. Discussion ................................................................................................................................... 60 3.5.1. Configurations of drivers of EA in innovation-driven economies ...................................... 60 3.5.2. Implications ......................................................................................................................... 63 3.5.3. Limitations and future research ........................................................................................... 64 3.6. Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 66 4. The more the merrier? Economic freedom and entrepreneurial activity ....................... 73 4.1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 73 4.2. The relationship between entrepreneurship, economic freedom, and economic development ... 75 4.3. Methods ....................................................................................................................................... 79 4.3.1. Data ..................................................................................................................................... 79 4.3.2. Fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis ......................................................................... 80 4.4. Results ......................................................................................................................................... 82 4.4.1. Descriptive results ............................................................................................................... 82 4.4.2. Results for factor-driven economies .................................................................................... 82 4.4.3. Results for efficiency-driven economies ............................................................................. 83 4.4.4. Results for innovation-driven economies ............................................................................ 84 4.5. Discussion ................................................................................................................................... 85 4.6. Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................