"Does Location Matter? Impact of Local Government Policies and Incentives on Entrepreneurship

One approach to help improve local job market is to attract startup companies from outside the region. However, regional and local policy obstacles and regulation’s ambiguities at all levels often hamper entrepreneurs. The goal of this study is to evaluate the differences between local government’s policies, incentives and information infrastructures and their impact on entrepreneurial activities. We employed a phenomenological study with surveys of the directors of economic development department in five neighboring cities in Southern California in USA. The result of this empirical study indicates that there are different incentives and policies in different cities that entrepreneurs need to be aware to take advantage of. In addition, we also found the interesting fact that the cities also collaborate with each other to make the entire region more competitive against other regions. International Proceedings of Economics Development and Research IPEDR vol.85 (2015) © (2015) IACSIT Press, Singapore.