Placing South Africa in the global entrepreneurship arena: A European country comparison

Entrepreneurship has been highlighted as a key contributor to job creation leading to increased economic growth. In developing countries, such as South Africa, where formal employment opportunities are scarce, the importance of entrepreneurship should be emphasised even more. South Africa is considered a country with several socio-economic challenges such as high unemployment levels, poverty and inequality, to name but a few. Placing it in context with other more developed countries may assist in the development of country specific policies and entrepreneurial development plans. Furthermore, knowing what a certain country's entrepreneurial and economic position is in relation to another country, could assist in improving the status quo of that country. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare the entrepreneurial and economic position of South Africa, which is considered a developing efficiency-driven economy to that of two European efficiency-, one European factor- and two European innovation-driven economies. The selected countries included: Russia, Poland, Hungary, Austria and Germany. A qualitative research approach using document analysis was used. Several reports from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) were used as the source documents which were content-analysed. Results from the analysis found that intention to start or engage in entrepreneurial activities are dependent on the different conditions like, for example, socio-economic conditions, entrepreneurial culture and existing businesses that exist in the different countries.