Expert Comment - Entrepreneurship in the context of Western vs. East Asian economic

Heller Recent developments in the global economy, notably the accelerating trade war between the US and China and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, have fuelled the debate as to which model of economic development, Western or East Asian, is more competitive in a long-term perspective. [...] What does the quantitative research of GEM and GEI tell us about the entrepreneurial element in the competitiveness of the Western versus the East Asian economic model?2 It comes as no surprise that the Western economies rank at the top of the list: Figure 1: In my country, it is easy to start a business (% adults) Source: GEM (2020, p. [...] The computation of the GCI Index is based on successive aggregations of scores, from the disaggregated level of the 103 single indicators to the overall GCI score as the highest level. [...] The GCI report puts the East Asian economies at the top of its ranking list: “Led by Singapore, the East Asia and Pacific region is the most competitive in the world, followed by Europe and North America… Among the BRICS, China is by far the best performer, ahead of the Russian Federation” (GCI, 2019, p. [...] The speed of the engine depends both on the innovative capacities of the entrepreneurial ecosystem and the responsiveness of government institutions whose collaboration in the planning and execution of the projects is indispensable.