A study on world entrepreneurship : analysis of similarities and differences which affect how one starts and grows a business in the United States and Europe

Abstract

This thesis aims to investigate the advantages and limitations of starting up a business in Europe and the United States. This paper contributes to the discourse of where an entrepreneur will find the most suitable location for his or her business. In order to answer the research questions presented on this paper, a qualitative, exploratory and abductive methodology was chosen as appropriate. This thesis draws on findings from the field as well as academic papers. The author of this paper selected three major ways of gathering data: a 15-question survey given out to entrepreneurs and employees of SMB organizations, many in-depth semi-structured interviews with seven entrepreneurs and finally, complemented by literature research from studies, articles, books and other academic sources. The findings show that there are many factors that affect the rate at which entrepreneurs start and grow a business. On this study, a deep-down analysis is performed of each of the most repeated patterns and broken down into two categories, “Major” and “Minor” factors, an order given by a ranking that was provided by the interviewees and survey respondents. By analyzing the most important business-related aspects of each territory, based on quantitative data from each region the hope is the reader can build a model to choose which territory would work best for his or her specific scenario.