Comparing subjective and objective indicators to describe the national entrepreneurial context: the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor and the Global Competitiveness Index contributions

Entrepreneurship research is progressing towards the construction of indexes that integrate the information of the three predominant approaches: the entrepreneurial activity output; the population’s entrepreneurial behavior, values and aspirations; and the context in which entrepreneurship takes place. In this study we compare the Global Competitiveness Index data, one of the objective sources of information selected among those recognized as descriptors of national contexts, with the national entrepreneurial context qualitative information provided by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor. The main purpose of this research is to contribute to the knowledge of entrepreneurial context sources of information by opening a discussion around the usefulness and contribution that could make the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor source in this field, and to determine if it is recommendable to proceed to its formal validation in the short time. The obtained results evidence that the two sources do not overlap to the degree of substituting one by the other and that the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor provides relevant qualitative details about the state of entrepreneurial context that are interesting to complement the Global Competitiveness Index information. The conclusion is to recommend the formal validation of this source, being also necessary to make comparisons with other relevant sources and to clear up its role in the progress of the integrated indexes construction.