Experts vs. Public, Who Knows Better? Factors Affecting High Growth Entrepreneurship in Developed and Developing Countries

Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank my parents Myung Hee and Jeong Heon and my sister Jee Min for their unconditional love and trust, and for teaching me the most important things in life. And my deep gratitude to below parties: To Professor Oana Tocoian: for your guidance, time, support, and patience throughout writing this thesis. I am truly grateful to have had you as my advisor and reader. To CMC: for three years of wonderful education both in and out of class. The academic challenges I faced on this campus shaped who I am now. Abinaya Thenappan: for always being there and sharing the most treasured memories. To my lifetime mentor, Julian: for your unconditional support and trust. Abstract This paper uses the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor data of approximately 200,000 surveys conducted on industry experts and general population to examine factors that have a significant impact on high growth Total Early-Stage Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA), with a focus on developed countries with GDP per capita of USD 20,000 or above. The results suggest that expert opinion has a significant positive correlation with high growth TEA in developed countries, while only the public sentiment has a meaningful relationship with high growth TEA in developing countries. Among the specific categories of the survey, access to funding and government regulations and support had the largest impact.