INCLUSIVE ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN THE SELECTED CEE COUNTRIES: DO CONTEXTUAL AND FRAMEWORK CONDITIONS MATTER?

Purpose: The paper covers the knowledge gap on inclusive entrepreneurship of women, youth and seniors in CEE countries from three perspectives: a/a level of inclusive entrepreneurship both in CEE and Western European countries, b/ identification of significant differences between key drivers of inclusivity in CEE and Western European countries c/ influence of attributes and framework conditions on the inclusivity development in CEE countries. Design/methodology/approach: We employ the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) data (both APS - adult population survey and NES - national expert survey data). A pooled sample of individual-level APS GEM data of 30 European countries for 2011 to 2017 is used. The study is divided into 3 phases: 1/ we analyse data from our own developed TEA inclusivity index 2/ we applied the Mann-Whitney Wilcox U test to determine the differences between CEE and Western Europe; 3/ we conducted correlation and regression analysis to investigate the relationship between TEA inclusivity indices and observed variables in CEE. Findings: Our findings confirm a common pattern of the inclusivity in CEE and Western Europe, as far as a group involvement is: the highest level of entrepreneurial involvement is exhibited by youth and the lowest by seniors. Women perform in between these groups. We also found out that the level of involvement of women and seniors in Western European countries is much higher than in CEE, while the opposite is valid for youth. We discovered that the selected personality traits are significant for the development of women and youth inclusivity, but for all studied groups, contextual variables, as well as framework conditions, are also very important, which confirms the findings of a few previous studies. Research/practical implications: We came up with specific policy and research-related recommendations related to inclusive entrepreneurship in CEE. Originality/value: We believe that our paper offers an original value by providing unique insights on the inclusivity of entrepreneurial activities in CEE countries.