سرمایه گذاری مستقیم خارجی، کیفیت نهادی، آزادی اقتصادی و کارآفرینی در بازارهای نوظهور

This study investigates the relationship between foreign direct investment, institutional quality, economic freedom, and entrepreneurship in emerging markets. The research compares the capacity and appetite for business creation among high-income, low-income and emerging countries. The results are based on a panel study of data, from 2004 to 2009 for 87 countries, using as its source “The World Bank Entrepreneurship Snapshots” to look at the connection between business creation, institutional quality, market freedom and foreign direct investment (FDI). The findings reveal a strong positive relationship between institutional quality and business generation in all three of the above categories. The freedom to create businesses and invest has an impact on business generation in emerging countries, while the influence of international trade appears more important as a spur to the genesis of business in low-income countries. Finally, there is a direct and significant relationship between FDI and business development in emerging countries. This result is consistent with “the spillover theory of entrepreneurship” (Acs et al., 2009, Ayyagari and Kosová, 2010 and Görg and Strobl, 2002).

Few studies are available on the relationship between entrepreneurship and factors ancillary to a free market (including freedom to trade and invest). In the available research, the results are inconclusive and do not allow for a consensus on whether these factors, in fact, stimulate business development. The majority of studies look at the relationship between institutions and entrepreneurship and whether institutional quality spurs would-be entrepreneurs to create businesses (Aidis et al., 2008, Desai et al., 2003 and Spencer and Gómez, 2004) and, therefore, whether or not a direct relationship occurs between entrepreneurship and institutions. However, findings are not yet exhaustive or conclusive in this area, making the correlation between institutions and entrepreneurship difficult to assess, particularly in relation to emerging countries. This study employs a panel study from 2004 to 2009 for 87 countries. Utilizing the registry of new companies on “The World Bank Entrepreneurship Snapshots”, the study tracks the relationships among company creation, institutional quality, a free market and FDI. To allow for comparative analysis, the 87 countries are split into three groups. The first group comprises countries of high and middle income; the second group comprises countries of low income (both groups selected according to the proposed classifications by the Atlas method of The World Bank); and, the third group comprises emerging or frontier emerging countries (these countries do not figure in previous groups and are grouped according to classifications from The Financial Times and The London Stock Exchange (FTSE) Index). This study makes four contributions to the canon of work on the subject. First, the study here analyzes the relationship between institutional strength and business creation in emerging countries, shedding light on the impact of institutional quality on business creation and how outside influences affect institutional quality. Second, it evaluates the relationship between entrepreneurship and aspects of the free market (in particular relative aspects such as financing, foreign trade, flow of capital and conditions for starting up, and operating and winding down a business over the lifespan of an enterprise), while considering which factor has the greatest influence and how gradations in the factors impact business creation. Third, the study examines the impact of FDI in assisting business development in emerging countries. This work considers whether FDI facilitates business creation in the host country or, actually, deters domestic company development. Fourth, the study looks at the interplay between FDI, institutional quality and the free market and how they combine to lay the groundwork for business development in emerging countries. This article continues as follows. The second section reviews recent literature and considers the rationale for the study; the third part presents the chosen econometric model; the fourth section details the data and sources while the fifth section offers the results and how they stand up to testing. The final section has conclusions, considers limitations of the research, and suggests opportunities for further research.

This work contributes to a body of research on the determinants of company creation in emerging markets. Results show a strong positive correlation between institutional quality and the rate of business creation in all three groups of countries. They also demonstrate that the quality of institutions and fluctuations in this quality can continue to have an influence on the creation of new businesses for up to two years from the date at which that quality is measured, compounding the importance of the relationship. The relationship between the freedom to create businesses and the availability of investment has the most significant positive impact on company development in emerging countries. Likewise, access to international trade has the greatest impact in low-income countries. Prior studies do not indicate that these factors are significant or that they have had an effect on latest levels of business development. Such non-relationships may indicate that the regulation of the free market has a short-term impact on business creation, and that the current prevailing regulatory climate affects whether or not an entrepreneur decides to start a business. However, entrepreneurs also pay heed to the stability and longevity of rules in terms of how these rules contribute to the quality of institutions The study also indicates that the quality of institutions multiplies the effectiveness of FDI's contribution to business creation. The following points verify the strength of the relationship: (1) controlling the possible endogenous relationship between FDI and institutional quality; (2) establishing the significance between variations in FDI and business development; and (3) observing that the FDI coefficient is largest in the frontier emerging countries as opposed to other emerging countries. This last result is consistent with “the spillover theory of entrepreneurship” (Acs et al., 2009 and Ayyagari and Kosová, 2010). The results suggest that those who devise public policy must consider FDI as a catalyst to business creation, its impact compounded by the strength of governance. Good institutions, besides attracting FDI also create regulatory frameworks to attract desirable types of FDI. Emerging countries must make efforts to attract FDI that produces economic, technological and social gains and not only large amounts of FDI. Additional indicators to channel efforts in such a way as to increase the effectiveness of FDI, creating businesses that last. These factors include job creation; value added by worker; capital expenses by employee; the use of local suppliers and other forms of relationship with the local economy. Factors relating to investment in training and technology have great importance too. FDI may generate high multiplier effects that can prompt domestic companies within the same industry to cross-pollinate (horizontal spillovers) and, within related industries, to have a positive effect on other businesses up and down the production line (vertical spillovers). Finally, the study is but a first step into what promises to be a rich vein of investigation into how public policy can be devised to attract foreign investment, promote a free market, and create and maintain institutions that allow new businesses to enter the market and to succeed.