Assessment of framework conditions for the creation and growth of firms in Europe

This report contributes to a better understanding of the framework conditions that are conducive to the emergence and the growth of entrepreneurial activities in Europe. It takes into account a broad variety of framework conditions, including entrepreneurial culture, access to human capital, support initiatives for knowledge creation and networking, market conditions, availability of sufficient and appropriate finance, prevailing business regulations and the quality of the supporting infrastructure. For each of these framework conditions, the prevailing literature identifies the underlying components that affect the creation and growth of firms respectively. A set of two composite indicators - i.e. the Entrepreneurship and Scale-up Indices (ESIS) -have been constructed to facilitate the comparison across Member States. As such, this report provides a working tool to monitor and benchmark EU Member States in the creation of a business-friendly environment that can foster both the creation and the growth trajectories of firms.