Entrepreneurial ecosystem, entrepreneurial rate and innovation: the moderating role of internet attention

The purpose of this study is to improve our understanding of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Unlike many previous studies, we accomplish this aim by testing the roles of entrepreneurial contexts in stimulating entrepreneurial performance, which is captured by entrepreneurial rate and entrepreneurial innovation. We further investigate their interacting with entrepreneurial attention (EA), measured by Internet search data. This is a national longitudinal study of all OECD countries between 2005 and 2014 based on multisource data. Based on the seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) results, the main findings are: (1) R&D transfer and market dynamics are important but negative predictors of both entrepreneurial activities; (2) entrepreneurial finance and taxes or regulations policies have significant positive effects on entrepreneurial innovation only when the entrepreneurship attention is high; (3) also only under the high entrepreneurship attention condition, physical infrastructure and cultural and social norms for entrepreneurship have significant positive effects on total entrepreneurial rate. The findings of this study, besides having important implications for entrepreneurial management and policy, have implications on the research of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, entrepreneurial innovation and attention.