The Finnish Paradox: The Curious Absence of High- Growth Entrepreneurship in Finland

Autio Erkko

This paper looks at how well Finland performs in high growth entrepreneurship and uses data from the Global Entrepreneurship monitor to benchmark Finland against other European countries. It is found that Finland’s prevalence rate of high growth entrepreneurial activity lags significantly behind most of its European and all of its Scandinavian peers. That this weak performance in high-growth entrepreneurship goes hand in hand with Finland being a world leader in per capita investment in R&D may be described as a paradox. The reasons underlying the underperformance of Finland remain however unclear. At this point, explanations should be sought in culture, industrial traditions and systemic experience in high growth entrepreneurship.

Publication info

Series
Discussion Papers no. 1197
Date
2009
Keywords
firm growth, high growth firms, gazelles
JEL
D21,L25,M13,O12,O40
Pages
30
Price
10 €
Availability of print version
Language
English