Bilingualism and regional entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship makes important contributions to both regional and national economies; however, entrepreneurship rates vary significantly across and within regions. We apply the communication accommodation theory lens to examine the role that bilingualism plays in regional entrepreneurship. We use aggregated firm and district level longitudinal data on eight northeastern districts in the region of South Tyrol (Italy) during 2000–2015 and demonstrate positive direct effect of bilingualism on entrepreneurship activity. The results can be generalizable to other European multicultural regions.