Do clusters matter to entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship regional outcomes? Why (or why not)? These questions, anchored in the current gap between the interest in clusters and entrepreneurship and the little research on their joint impact on regional development, are the lei motiv of this book. In effect, near 400 million people are starting or running new businesses, half of them in developing countries. Also, hundreds of cluster initiatives have been launched in all the regions of the world arguing that, among other benefits, they promote entrepreneurship and employment growth. Yet, both academics and policymakers know little about the joint impact of entrepreneurship and clusters on regional development. The reason is the wide diversity of theoretical and policy approaches to define and measure clusters and entrepreneurship, and to evaluate their effect on regional development.
"Entrepreneurship and Regional Development" aims at answering the questions and filling the relevance-rigor gap that motivates this book by reviewing the latest studies, elaborating and testing a socio-economic theory of clusters, and providing implications for academics and policymakers.

One of the obstacles for understanding the phenomenon of entrepreneurship is the lack of integration of different assumptions, units and levels of analysis that are implicit in its many conceptualisations. This important book offers a pathway to integration by considering eight associated disciplines and theories, presenting an authoritative selection of the most significant published work on entrepreneurship from each perspective.

Entrepreneurship and Regional Development aims to make a theoretical and practical contribution meeting the need for studies on the impact of clusters on entrepreneurship and societal outcomes. This book aims to answer the following research question: Do clusters matter to entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship outcomes at the societal level?