A growing empirical literature has established a positive relationship between cultural diversity and entrepreneurship, often attributing this effect to innovation benefits of diversity. However, not all entrepreneurship is inherently innovative, raising the question of whether cultural diversity may increase the likelihood of an entrepreneur pursuing an innovative instead of a more replicative business strategy. This study investigates the relationship between regional cultural diversity and the innovation orientation of early-stage entrepreneurs and considers moderating factors by decomposing shares of foreign-born population by origin (within and outside of the EU) and by education level. Combining survey data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor with population-based indicators of cultural diversity, we carry out a multilevel analysis for 140 European regions. The results suggest that entrepreneurs in culturally more diverse regions are significantly more likely to exhibit innovation orientation.

越来越多的实证文献已经在文化多样性和创业精神之间建立了积极的关系，通常将这种效应归因于多样性的创新效益。然而，并非所有创业精神本质上都是创新的，这就提出了一个问题：文化多样性是否会增加企业家追求创新而非更具复制性的商业战略的可能性。本研究调查了区域文化多样性与早期企业家创新导向之间的关系，并通过按出身（欧盟境内和境外）和教育水平分解外国出生人口的比例来考虑调节因素。我们将全球创业监测的调查数据与基于人口的文化多样性指标相结合，对 140 个欧洲地区进行了多层次分析。结果表明，文化更加多元化地区的企业家更有可能表现出创新导向。