Level of education and knowledge, foresight competency and international entrepreneurship: A study of human capital determinants in the European countries

Purpose: Global economies are involved with enormous activities of internationalization that provide pure and untapped opportunities for entrepreneurs and businesses to place and promote their products. Design/methodology/approach: The authors applied structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis with the partial least squares (PLS), conducting an empirical analysis of data from 28 European countries. Findings: The results reveal that the higher level of education/knowledge in a country enhances the foresight competencies of entrepreneurs and that they both have a positive influence on the effective business creation. The findings of this paper also stress on the positive relationship between the effect of business creation and international intensity in economy level. Research limitations/implications: The limitation of this study lies in the impossibility of obtaining a larger and more complete data. Consequently, this study uses national-level data from 28 European countries, which makes the sample too small. In addition, although innovation is one of the driving factors in both internationalization and entrepreneurship, because of the limitation, it has not been considered in this study. Practical implications: The authors assert that countries, specifically European nations studied in this research, can improve their employment rate and value creation (through their products in international markets) by giving a special attention to the entrepreneurial-oriented human capitals. Social implications: This research warns policymakers that they can have a serious contribution in promoting (international) entrepreneurship. They should draw a rigorous plan for formal and informal educational systems that effectively develops essential knowledge for launching new businesses and fosters the innovation and entrepreneurship. Originality/value: This study set out to improve the understanding of the role of level of education/knowledge and foresight competencies, as the elements of human capitals, on international entrepreneurship.