Entrepreneurship in rural regions: the role of industry experience and home advantage for newly founded firms

Industry experience and home advantage can have a varying influence on entrepreneurial competitiveness, depending on the regional context. We use matched employer–employee data from Statistics Sweden to analyse new firm formation in rural, urban and metropolitan regions. The results suggest that industry experience has a positive effect on firm survival, while firm growth is more influenced by home advantage. Interestingly, a positive home advantage only exists in rural regions, where native entrepreneurs create significantly more jobs than non-locals.