The Effects of Knowledge-Based Economy's Components on Entrepreneurship in a Group of Selected Countries

Many countries in the world have long been trying to find a solution that would allow them to achieve economic growth and development through which more wealth, prosperity and utility can be achieved. Economists consider entrepreneurship the most important solution, which has recently attracted the attention of many countries. Knowledge-based economy is one of the most important tools resulting in economic growth and development by enhancing entrepreneurship. The aim of the current study is to investigate the effects of knowledge-based economy’s components, based on the definition provided by the World Bank (training and human resource, innovation system, information and communication technology (ICT), and economic and institutional regimes) on newly-developed entrepreneurship in 10 resource-driven countries (including Iran) and 18 innovation-driven countries. This study has been conducted using panel data techniques and generalized method of moments (GMM) during the time span extending from 2008 to 2015. The findings of the study show that for the resource-driven countries, all of the components of knowledge-based economy, except the ICT variable, have significant positive effects on entrepreneurship. In the innovation-driven countries, all of the components of knowledge-based economy have had significant positive effects on entrepreneurship.