Temporal and Geographic Stress Testing of Entrepreneurial Proportionalities in United States Counties
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
I have read with interest the article entitled "Temporal and Geographic Stress Testing of Entrepreneurial Proportionalities in United States Counties".
Theoretically, the analysis draws on the stream of studies known as scaling studies, mostly based on research in urban economics, geography and complex systems which focus on the relationships between urban scale and economic productivity, among others.
In particular, Settlement Scaling Theory (SST) can be conceived as a set of hypotheses and relationships that together estimates how measurable quantitative attributes of settlements are related to their population size.
By making use of a log-log regression (power law analysis), the paper focuses on three entrepreneurial types, such as total entrepreneurship, new entrepreneurship, and existing entrepreneurship, and on a set of three entrepreneurial proportionalities in datasets of 1785 US counties, with the aim to evaluate their temporal and geographic sensitivities.
The analysis has showed that entrepreneurial proportionalities are not temporally or geographically sensitive, apart from total entrepreneurship, that is geographically sensitive, but not temporally.
In my opinion, it is a quality article, clearly written, well structured, methodologically and statistically sophisticated, coherent and generously referenced. It is not particularly original, and it is not so clear its contribution to academic debate.
However, the core analysis is good and as such it is worthy of publication. Nonetheless, the author would consider some suggestions as a way for improving the quality and impact of the manuscript.
As the urban scaling framework views cities as integrated socioeconomic networks of interactions embedded in physical space, in a way that somehow evocates the agglomeration effect and/or the institutionalist/evolutionary approaches, in the section dedicated to theoretical debate also this filed of studies could be mentioned. The works of Michael Storper and colleagues could be important literary sources here.
In conclusive remarks, the author would highlight the contribution and the implication of analytical results and briefly discuss also the limits and weaknesses of the approach and of the method adopted.
Author Response
Responses to the comments of Reviewer 1.
Comment 1. Theoretically, the analysis draws on the stream of studies known as scaling studies, mostly based on research in urban economics, geography and complex systems which focus on the relationships between urban scale and economic productivity, among others.
Response: Correct
Comment 2. In particular, Settlement Scaling Theory (SST) can be conceived as a set of hypotheses and relationships that together estimates how measurable quantitative attributes of settlements are related to their population size.
Response: Correct
Comment 3. By making use of a log-log regression (power law analysis), the paper focuses on three entrepreneurial types, such as total entrepreneurship, new entrepreneurship, and existing entrepreneurship, and on a set of three entrepreneurial proportionalities in datasets of 1785 US counties, with the aim to evaluate their temporal and geographic sensitivities.
Response: Correct
Comment 4. The analysis has showed that entrepreneurial proportionalities are not temporally or geographically sensitive, apart from total entrepreneurship, that is geographically sensitive, but not temporally.
Response: Correct
Comment 5. In my opinion, it is a quality article, clearly written, well structured, methodologically and statistically sophisticated, coherent and generously referenced.
Response: Thank you for the positive comment.
Comment 5. It is not particularly original, and it is not so clear its contribution to academic debate.
Response: This statement is debatable because the manuscript addresses ways of analysing entrepreneurship that are not generally used. I have added much more information in the discussion that should add to academic debates.
Comment 6. However, the core analysis is good and as such it is worthy of publication. Nonetheless, the author would consider some suggestions as a way for improving the quality and impact of the manuscript.
Response. I have reacted positively to this comment.
Comment 7. As the urban scaling framework views cities as integrated socioeconomic networks of interactions embedded in physical space, in a way that somehow evocates the agglomeration effect and/or the institutionalist/evolutionary approaches, in the section dedicated to theoretical debate also this filed of studies could be mentioned. The works of Michael Storper and colleagues could be important literary sources here.
Response. I have included more information including references to the publications of Storper and colleagues.
Comment 8. In conclusive remarks, the author would highlight the contribution and the implication of analytical results and briefly discuss also the limits and weaknesses of the approach and of the method adopted.
Response. I have throughout the Discussion as well as in the Conclusions presented comments on the methods and approaches used.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
Thank you for the opportunity for reading the paper. In my opinion, your paper requires some substantial improvements. I would have some considerations and suggestions for improving the quality of the article. Please see my comments.
General remarks:
- Term “great recession” is used as a usual word though, in economics and finance, it is considered an official term. Clarification of a term would be useful.
- Implications for the academic field and practical and possibly political fields should be added at the end of the article.
Introduction:
- Objective, implications for academic and practical fields would strengthen the introduction
Scientific literature analysis:
- The scientific literature analysis is logical and well-structured
- Using more recent and more diverse publications would sow a clearer picture of the research field. There are too few recent (less than 5 years) publications and too little diversity of researchers to reveal the overview of the research field and research gap.
Author Response
Responses to the comments of Reviewer 2.
Comment 1. In my opinion, your paper requires some substantial improvements. I would have some considerations and suggestions for improving the quality of the article. Please see my comments.
Response. I take note of this statement.
General remarks:
Comment 2. Term “great recession” is used as a usual word though, in economics and finance, it is considered an official term. Clarification of a term would be useful.
Response. The important issue for this publication is the fact that a recession followed upon a growth period and created stress conditions important to the investigation. In other words, whether the recession is a Great Recession or not, was immaterial. I have, therefore, removed all references to the “Great Recession” (except the first time) and only used the word “recession” in the manuscript. However, let me just state that other researchers have in the scientific literature referred to the 2007 to 2010 recession as the “Great Recession”. Having used the term in my manuscript was not beyond the pale.
Comment 3. Implications for the academic field and practical and possibly political fields should be added at the end of the article.
Response. I have added to the Discussion to address the issue of academic and practical issues. For me as a scientist to address political issues would be to enter into areas where I lack the needed expertise. I, therefore, choose to avoid controversy.
Comment 4. The reviewer’s comments on the Introduction in terms of objective, implications for academic and practical fields would strengthen the introduction are very vague.
Response. The objective of the study is now in my opinion clearly stated: “Entrepreneurship is a crucial mechanism in economic development [24]. The characteristics of cities enhance innovation and creativity [22,23]. Constraints imposed by environmental conditions, technology and institutions impact upon the spatial and temporal levels of social, economic and political interactions of urban settlements [3,5]. Therefore, constraints that might impact upon entrepreneurship in human settlements should be investigated. The prime purpose of this contribution is to investigate the resistance to change of the three entrepreneurial proportionalities present in human settlements, namely those between: total entrepreneurship and population size; total entrepreneurship and new entrepreneurship; and, total entrepreneurship and existing entrepreneurship. Such analyses have not been carried out before. The basic hypothesis is that these proportionalities are temporally and geographically robust. To test the hypothesis, the influence of economic changes on the properties of the proportionalities during periods of economic growth and decline is examined. In other words, it is examined if time, geographic location or community prosperity/poverty levels influence the properties of the proportionalities. U.S. counties were selected as the human settlements in the study.” Hopefully, this addresses the concerns of the reviewer.
Comment 5. Scientific literature analysis: The scientific literature analysis is logical and well-structured.
Response. Thank you for the positive comment.
Comment 6. Using more recent and more diverse publications would sow [sic] a clearer picture of the research field. There are too few recent (less than 5 years) publications and too little diversity of researchers to reveal the overview of the research field and research gap.
Response. I have added some additional references. However, I am somewhat bemused by the implication of reviewer’s implied suggestion that references that are younger than 5 years re superior. Nevertheless, about 30 percent of the references used are younger than 5 years. Hopefully this qualifies as acceptable.
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
Thank you for accepting some of the thoughts and the possibility to contribute to the publication.
Author Response
Thank you for the suggestion. I have included information from the articles mentioned by you as follows in the Discussion and Reference List.
Entrepreneurship remains a topic that attracts research attention. Recent studies focused on the business models of a subset of “blue” entrepreneurs focused on marine plastic pollution mitigation [53] and on investigating how innovation promotes digital start-up performance in China [54] The business model innovation architecture was disassembled into three elements: value proposition, value creation, and value capture to assess their roles [54]. A psychoanalytic approach was used to investigate the entrepreneurial process of how individuals form ideas for new venture creation [55]. A study of the role of the entrepreneurial orientation of Kenyan farmers as reflected in their innovativeness, proactiveness, and risk-taking was also undertaken [56]. These studies focused on the attitudes of individuals (i.e., entrepreneurs) [53,54] or aspects of the business models they use [55,56]. In contrast this contribution has focused on the physical manifestation of entrepreneurship, i.e., enterprises linked to different entrepreneurial types.
It was kept in mind that entrepreneurship is an elusive concept but that it can be measured in terms of outputs [27]. Therefore, the number and types of enterprises present in U.S. counties were quantified. The related entrepreneurship entities are: total entrepreneurship (the maximum number of enterprises that can be carried in a county), new entrepreneurship (the number of different enterprise types in a county economy) and exist-ing entrepreneurship (the difference between total and new entrepreneurship). This was a useful strategy.
The following references were included in the Reference list
- Dijkstra, H; van Beukering, P; Brouwer, R. Marine plastic entrepreneurship; Exploring drivers, barriers and value creation in the blue economy. Sustain. Technol. Entrepreneurship 2022, 1, 100018.
- Guo, H; Guo, A.; Mac, H. Inside the black box: How business model innovation contributes to digital start-up performance. J. Innov Knowl 2022, 7, 1001880.
- Metallo, C.; Agrifoglio, R.; Briganti, P.; Mercurio, L.; Ferrara, M. Entrepreneurial behaviour and new venture creation: the psychoanalytic perspective. J. Innov Knowl 2021, 6, 35–42..
- Andati, P.; Majiwa, E. Ngigi, M.; Mbeche, R.; Ateka, J. Determinants of adoption of climate smart agricultural technologies among potato farmers in Kenya: Does entrepreneurial orientation play a role? Sustain. Technol. Entrepreneurship 2022, 1, 100017).
