New business creation and growth and its spatial and sectoral components: a multivariate analysis of key variables, relationships and processes and their policy implications

This paper examines the regional determinants of business start-up activity in the UK over the period 2000-2004. Spatial and sectoral variations in VAT registration rates at the Local Authority District level are identified (with a specific focus on advanced services and manufacturing activities) and regressed against key variables relating to education, skills, income, and local industrial structure. The study is unique in the sense that it considers how the determinants of new venture creation vary between NUTS 1 UK regions – an approach that requires the simultaneous consideration of entrepreneurial activity at both the intra- and inter-regional scales. © 2008 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.