The role of entrepreneurship, innovation, and urbanity-diversity on growth, unemployment, and income: US state-level evidence and an fsQCA elucidation

Abstract This study considers roles played by dimensions of entrepreneurship, innovation, and geography on United States (US) state level growth, unemployment, and income employing Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analyses (fsQCA). One important developmental feature of the analyses is the use of a novel fuzzy membership score creation process, undertaken to calibrate the considered condition and outcome variables. Moreover, fuzzy cluster analyses are undertaken, using the fuzzy c-means technique, on sets of constituent variables to produce sets of clusters interpretable to the relevant condition and outcome variables. A series of fsQCA investigations are undertaken across the different outcome variables of growth, unemployment, and income. The fsQCA results offer novel insights into variations in the US state level based outcome variables, and how dimensions of entrepreneurship, innovation, and the urbanity-diversity of the states contribute to this. The novel applied and technical developments offer expanding ideas on this area of research.