Medium term effects of culture, transactions and institutions on opportunity entrepreneurship

Cultural evolution is a long-term endogenous process which is revealed in society's cultural traits and it is embodied in institutional characteristics (property rights protection, rule of law, etc.) and transaction characteristics (risk levels, time required for start-ups, corruption levels, literacy levels, etc.). In the short- and medium-term, culture, institutions and transactions are exogenous for the economic and societal system. The paper aims to explore the roles of cultural, transaction and institution characteristics in the determination of opportunity entrepreneurship, at the medium-term. A series of variables is used to express these roles, which are analysed with a principal component analysis and a regression analysis. As expected, the conclusions confirm that the cultural traits both positively and negatively affect opportunity entrepreneurship depending on the particular traits combination. Moreover, the effect of enhanced transaction characteristics and economic institutions is conducive to opportunity entrepreneurship. Performing a sensitivity analysis, we construct a hypothetical, more opportunity entrepreneurship-oriented world by postulating pro-entrepreneurship cultural traits. In this "new world", because cultural traits are no longer an issue, they present "entrepreneurial maturity"; the important factors in promoting opportunity entrepreneurship are transaction and economic institution characteristics.