Regional differences in the influence of role models: Comparing the entrepreneurial process of rural Catalonia

The paper examines the impact of entrepreneurial role models on the entrepreneurial process in rural areas with a strong entrepreneurial history versus those not necessarily characterized by such a tradition. To attain this objective, a socio-cultural institutional approach to entrepreneurship is adopted. A Rare Events logit model using a robust Spanish data set from 2003 is carried out. The main contribution of the study indicates that the difference between entrepreneurial activity levels in rural Spain is in large part explained by the presence of entrepreneurial role models favouring entrepreneurial activity in rural Catalonia, an area with a strong entrepreneurial tradition.