Skip to main content
Disciplines
Automotive Business IT + Informatics Construction + Real Estate Electrical Engineering + Electronics Energy + Sustainability Insurance + Risk Finance + Banking Management + Leadership Marketing + Sales Mechanical Engineering + Materials
Events
DE
EN
Books
Journals
Topic Page
Marketing
Start single access now
Access for companies
EXTENDED SEARCH
Log in
Top
Published in:
Introduction to Entrepreneurship in South America Read chapter Read first chapter

2022 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

Entrepreneurship in Ecuador

Author : Sara A. Wong

Published in: Entrepreneurship in South America

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Log in

Activate our intelligent search to find suitable subject content or patents.

search-config
loading …

Abstract

In Ecuador, as in many countries worldwide, entrepreneurship has gained a great deal of importance in the past decade, both as an economic and as scholarly activities, and as the focus of public policy. However, entrepreneurial activities are not new in this small, open economy, located by the Pacific Ocean in the northern part of South America. Throughout its history, the primary export productive specialization of Ecuador has been accompanied by a succession of boom-and-bust cycles usually linked to the production of a single commodity. In the latest cycle, between 2004 and 2014, there was an unprecedented inflow of foreign currency due to the boom of commodity prices, in particular oil, whose revenues contributed to financing the government’s social and infrastructural plans in that decade. This abruptly ended after the collapse in the price of oil in 2014, and the recovery was still underway when the pandemic hit this economy. In times of crisis, entrepreneurial activities are a necessity, and this country has long been continuously experiencing events that have challenged the entrepreneurial spirit of the Ecuadorian people.

Dont have a licence yet? Then find out more about our products and how to get one now:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

  • über 102.000 Bücher
  • über 537 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

  • Automobil + Motoren
  • Bauwesen + Immobilien
  • Business IT + Informatik
  • Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
  • Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
  • Finance + Banking
  • Management + Führung
  • Marketing + Vertrieb
  • Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe
  • Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

  • über 67.000 Bücher
  • über 340 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

  • Bauwesen + Immobilien
  • Business IT + Informatik
  • Finance + Banking
  • Management + Führung
  • Marketing + Vertrieb
  • Versicherung + Risiko




Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now
previous chapter Entrepreneurship in Colombia
next chapter Entrepreneurship in French Guiana
Footnotes
1
There is a vast literature on the underpinnings of entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial activities, and the entrepreneurs. From the views that stress on the risk of such activity (Cantillon, 1756; Knight, 1921, among the most widely cited), to those that focus on its cultural aspects (e.g., Leighton, 1988; Dana, 2002, 1990), to the ones that stress innovation (Schumpeter, 1939, 1934)—widely cited in development—to others that highlight entrepreneurship as the need for achievement (McClelland, 1961) or the recognition in compensation for social marginality (Hagen, 1962), or that rather stress certain traits and behaviors of the entrepreneur, e.g., a social agent for change, as innate, as learned, her desire for independence, her need for autonomy in the workplace, and her desire to develop skills and acquire social status (Barth, 1967; Kets de Vries, 1977; Sexton & Upton, 1990; Gibb, 1986; Knight, 1987; Creedy & Johnson, 1983; Evans & Leighton, 1990; Vivarelli, 2004, 1991; Blanchflower & Oswald, 1998) to those that search for the reasons why entrepreneurs pursue such activity (for instance, Lazear, 2005; Poschke, 2013; Lederman et al., 2014); among others. The reader is invited to discover these and many more, as these references discuss the concepts and theories on which the measurement of entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial activities, and the entrepreneurs are based.
 
2
Care should be taken when comparing countries and factors over time, due to changes in questions and the conceptual framework for entrepreneurship. Nonetheless, the GEM strives to ensure procedures that render their figures comparable across countries. When some definitions change, as with the conceptual framework for entrepreneurship, the GEM discloses the relevant information on the consortium website (http://​gem-consortium.​ns-client.​xyz/​about/​wiki)
 
3
This first law on entrepreneurship allows the implementation of simplified joint stock companies (“Sociedades por Acciones Simplificadas,” SAS, by its acronym in Spanish), a new legal figure for businesses. With this figure, sole proprietorships can be formed without minimum capital requirement. Moreover, this can be done with a simple online procedure.
 
Literature
Ács, Z. J. (2007). How is entrepreneurship good for economic growth? Innovations, 1(1), 97–107.CrossRef
Ács, Z. J., Autio, E., & Szerb, L. (2014). National Systems of entrepreneurship: Measurement issues and policy implications. Research Policy, 43(3), 476–494.CrossRef
Ács, Z. J., Estrin, S., Mickiewicz, T., & Szerb, L. (2018). Entrepreneurship, institutional economics, and economic growth: An ecosystem perspective. Small Business Economics, 51, 501–514.CrossRef
Barth, F. (1967). On the study of social change. American Anthropologist, 69, 661–669.CrossRef
Blanchflower, D. G., & Oswald, A. (1998). What makes an entrepreneur? Journal of Labor Economics, 26–60.
Camino-Mogrovejo, S., Bermúdez-Barrezueta, N., Alvarado-Aucaquizhpi, D., & Vite-Vera, F. (2018). MIPYMES y Grandes Empresas en el Ecuador, Período 2013—2017, Superintendencia de Compañías del Ecuador.
Cantillon, R. (1756). In R. Gyles (Ed.), Essai sur la nature du commerce en général. London and Paris.
Coduras, A., & Autio, E. (2013). Comparing subjective and objective indicators to describe the national entrepreneurial context: The global entrepreneurship monitor and the global competitiveness index contributions. Investigaciones Regionales, 26, 47–74.
Creedy, J., & Johnson, P. S. (1983). Firm formation in manufacturing industry. Applied Economics, 177–185.
Dana, L. (2002). When economies change paths: Models of transition in China, the central Asian republics, Myanmar, and the nations of former Indochine Française. World Scientific.CrossRef
Dana, L. (1990). Saint Martin/Sint Maarten: A case study of the effects of politics and culture on economic development. Journal of Small Business Management, 28, 91–98.
Demirgüc-Kunt, A., Klapper, L. F., & Panos, G. A. (2009). “Entrepreneurship in post-conflict transition. The role of informality and access to finance”, World Bank policy research working paper No. 4935.
Díaz, J. (2018). “La historia económica contemporánea de Ecuador, 1972–2015”, chapter 1, in Reformas y desarrollo en el Ecuador contemporáneo, Javier Díaz-Cassou and Marta Ruiz-Arranz, editores. Inter-American Development Bank.
Evans, D., & Leighton, L. (1990). Small business formation by unemployed and employed workers. Small Business Economics, 319–330.
Gibb, A. (1986). “Understanding and influencing the business start-up process”, Proceedings of the First Canadian Conference on Entrepreneurial Studies, Memorial University, St. John’s, Newfoundland, 1–35.
Hagen, E. (1962). On the theory of social change: How economic growth begins. Homewood.
Hechavarría, D. M., & Reynolds, P. D. (2009). Cultural norms & business start-ups: The impact of national values on opportunity and necessity entrepreneurs. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, 4(5), 417–437.CrossRef
Hisrich, R. D., Petković, S., Ramadani, V., & Dana, L. P. (2016). Venture capital funds in transition countries: Insights from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, 23(2), 296–315.CrossRef
Kets de Vries, M. (1977). The entrepreneurial personality: A person at the crossroads. The Journal of Management Studies, 14, 34–57.CrossRef
Knight, R. (1987). Can business schools produce entrepreneurs? An empirical study. Journal of Small Business and Entrepreneurship, 5, 17–26.CrossRef
Knight, F. (1921). Risk, uncertainty and profit. Houghton Mifflin.
Lazear, E. (2005). Entrepreneurship. Journal of Labor Economics, 649–680.
Lederman, D., Messina, J., Pienknagura, S., & Rigolini, J. (2014). Latin American entrepreneurs: Many firms but little innovation. World Bank.
Leighton, D. (1988). Summary. In R. Peterson & K. Ainslie (Eds.), Understanding entrepreneurship, Kendall hunt. Dubuque.
Ley Orgánica de Emprendimiento e Innovación. (2020). Supplement to Official Registry No. 151, February 28, 2020.
Poschke, M. (2013). The decision to become an entrepreneur and the firm size distribution: A unifying framework. McGill University.
Reynolds, P. D. (2012). “Entrepreneurship in Developing Economies: The Bottom Billions and Business Creation.” Foundations and Trends in Entrepreneurship, January 2012.
Schott, T., & Wickstrom Jensen, K. (2008). The coupling between entrepreneurship and public policy: Tight in developed countries but loose in developing countries. Estudios de Economia, 35(2), 195–215.
Schumpeter, J. (1939). Business cycles: A theoretical, historical and statistical analysis of the capitalist process. McGraw-Hill.
Schumpeter, J. (1934). The theory of economic development. Harvard University Press.
Sexton, D., & Upton, N. (1990). Female and male entrepreneurs: Psychological characteristics. Journal of Business Venturing, 5, 29–36.CrossRef
Vivarelli, M. (2004). Are all the potential entrepreneurs so good? Small Business Economics, 41–49.
Vivarelli, M. (1991). The birth of new enterprises. Small Business Economics, 215–223.
Wong, B. (2020). How digital entrepreneurs will help shape the world after the COVID-19 pandemic. Article for the World Economic Forum Website.
World Bank (2020). Ease of Doing Business, World Bank Report.
World Bank (2017). Ease of Doing Business, World Bank Report.
World Bank (2016). Ease of Doing Business, World Bank Report.
World Bank. (2012). Ecuador: Las caras de la informalidad. World Bank.
World Economic Forum. (n.d.-a). Global Competitiveness Report, various editions.
Metadata
Title
Entrepreneurship in Ecuador
Author
Sara A. Wong
Copyright Year
2022
Book
Entrepreneurship in South America

Print ISBN: 978-3-030-97059-8

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-030-97060-4

Copyright Year: 2022

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-97060-4_7

Premium Partner

    Image Credits