Paul Sakuma/AP file photo
In Search of the Entrepreneurial Personalities of Specific Places
Some are been working to identify the factors that drive the success of certain entrepreneurial regions, such as Silicon Valley.
As I've noted many times before, entrepreneurship is a key driver of innovation and economic growth. But we also know that entrepreneurship is spiky — not everyone becomes an entrepreneur, and not all places foster this kind of growth.
Economists, mayors, and economic development officials as well as venture capitalists, technologists, and business leaders have long sought to track the key characteristics of successful entrepreneurs, who are at the core of game-changing companies like Apple, Google, and Facebook. These same groups of people have also been working to identify the factors that drive the success of certain entrepreneurial regions, such as Silicon Valley.
While we know that the Steve Jobs of the world have distinctive psychological traits and personality profiles, most coverage of the factors behind places with strong entrepreneurial ecosystems focuses on economic factors, such as the presence of venture capital, research universities like Stanford in Silicon Valley or MIT in Cambridge and Boston, plus other successful companies that breed entrepreneurs. We've also found a connection between metros that have high levels of entrepreneurship and concentrations of the creative class.