Entrepreneurial risk-taking and cultural values: A global behavioural analysis

Abstract

Entrepreneurial risk-taking has emerged as a defining behavioural dimension of global innovation ecosystems, yet its expression varies dramatically across cultural contexts due to differences in value systems, cognitive scripts, and socio-institutional norms that shape how individuals perceive uncertainty, reward, and failure. While economic and structural factors explain part of this variation, increasing evidence suggests that cultural values particularly dimensions related to individualism, uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientation, and power distance play a central role in determining entrepreneurial cognition and risk propensity. This paper conducts a global behavioural analysis to examine how cultural values influence entrepreneurial risk-taking across diverse societies, integrating theoretical models from cross-cultural psychology, behavioural economics, and entrepreneurship research. The study synthesizes findings from cultural-value indices, entrepreneurial intention models, and international startup behaviour datasets to evaluate how cognitive framing, social expectations, normative pressures, and institutional trust mediate risk-taking tendencies. Results highlight that cultures emphasizing autonomy, achievement, and low uncertainty avoidance foster higher entrepreneurial experimentation, while collectivist and high-uncertainty societies demonstrate conservative, failure-averse decision patterns. The analysis further reveals emerging global shifts as digitalization and transnational ecosystems reshape cultural exposure and entrepreneurial behaviour.