Entrepreneurship In Rural Regions: The Role Of Industry Experience And Home Advantage For Newly Founded Firms

Industry experience and home advantage can have a varying influence on entrepreneurial competitiveness, depending on the regional context. We use matched employer-employee data from Statistics Sweden to analyse new firm formation in rural, urban and metropolitan regions. The results suggest that industry experience has a positive effect on firm survival, while firm growth is more influenced by home advantage. Interestingly, a positive home advantage only exists in rural regions, where native entrepreneurs create significantly more jobs than non-locals.