Key Variables

• TEAYYOPP: Opportunity-driven early-stage entrepreneur 

• TEAYYNEC: Necessity-driven early-stage entrepreneur 

• TEAYYIDO: Improvement-driven opportunity early-stage entrepreneur
  

Besides the prevalence rate of activity, GEM puts emphasis on other quality-related characteristics of the early phase of new venture creation, such as innovation, high growth potential, business discontinuation and the environmental factors of entrepreneurship perception. From 2001, GEM has paid attention to differences in motivations for starting a business and has created separate measures of opportunity driven entrepreneurship and necessity driven entrepreneurship. 

A further extension to the opportunity driven entrepreneurship measure is available from 2005 onwards; this measure includes only those who are pulled to entrepreneurship by opportunity and because they desire independence or to increase their income, not those who are pushed to entrepreneurship out of necessity or those who sought only to maintain their income.

• Are you involved in this start-up to take advantage of a business opportunity or because you have no better choices for work?

• Which one of the following, do you feel, is the most important motive for pursuing this opportunity?
  

Note: This question is asked to individuals indicating to be involved in a start-up (section in which the variable names start with ‘SU’). For individuals indicating to be owning-managing a firm that is already operational (section in which the variable names start with ‘OM’) slightly different phrasing is applied.

Countries with high relative prevalence of improvement-driven opportunity entrepreneurship appear to be primarily innovation-driven countries. In these countries, opportunities may be expected to be more abundant, and individuals may have more alternatives to make a living. Therefore the trend line that plots how opportunity TEA rates vary with GDP per capita has increasing slope.  Necessity entrepreneurship shows the opposite association.