Subjective well-being and happiness have taken on increasing interest and relevance. Recently some governments and entities have been presenting, developing, and supporting happiness indexes. Regarding entrepreneurial activity, the presentation of global indexes has been developed for some more years until now. However, despite the existence of these two kinds of analysis, few studies have, so far, focused on comparing the evolution of the two sets of indicators, as well as on the hypothetical relationship between them, which prefigures a gap in the literature. In the present work, an exploratory analysis is performed on this theme, trying to establish the basis for identifying the existence of relationship between both types of indicators, using the comparison between two of the main open access databases, namely data from the World Happiness Report (WHR) and from the Global Entrepreneurship Index (GEI).
TopIntroduction
Subjective well-being and happiness have assumed in recent years an increasing importance both in economic and political terms and also as an emerging theme in academia (Huang, 2016; Naudé et al., 2014; Naudé, 2010; Stiglitz et al., 2009; UNSDSN, s/d).
Due to the growing interest in the topic, some governments and entities have been developing, contributing to and supporting Happiness Indexes. According to the sources identified (GNH, s/d.), Bhutan was the forerunner on this topic, creating one of these indexes: the Gross National Happiness – GNH Happiness Index, which will have been the first to define the concept of happiness index, in the 1970s.
Subsequently, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) publishes the Better Life Index, starting in 2011, and the United Nations (UN) begins publishing the World Happiness Report starting in the following year.
The World Happiness Report (WHR) is conducted annually and published since 2012, based on a general survey of the state of global happiness. It is usually released on the 20th of March, when the International Day of Happiness is celebrated.
According to the UN, since its first edition the report has gained global recognition as governments, organizations and civil society increasingly use happiness indicators to inform their decision-making (UNSDSN, s/d).
As in other situations and fields of knowledge (Saraiva & Carqueja, 2018), the UN has created a sub-structure dedicated to the study of this topic: the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN). This entity was created in 2012 and operates under the aegis of the UN Secretary-General. In accordance with its Vision and Organization, the SDSN mobilizes global scientific and technological knowledge to promote practical solutions for sustainable development, including the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Climate Agreement (SDSN, s/d).
This entity relies on the collaboration of specialists in a variety of fields – economics, psychology, national statistics, health, public policies, among others – which describe how welfare measures can be used effectively to evaluate the progress of nations. The reports review the state of happiness in today's world and show how the new approach to happiness explains personal and national variations of happiness.
On the other hand, within the entrepreneurship-related literature, positive feelings and states of mind, as well as satisfaction with life, have been linked to the possibility of generating positive effects when it comes to task performance, goals and productivity, and these benefits seem to apply also to entrepreneurs (Baron, 2015; Williams & Shepherd, 2016; Ryan & Deci, 2017; Shir et al., 2019).
The issue of life satisfaction and psychological and subjective well-being seem to be important topics of discussion regarding the perception of the quality of life of individuals (Florida et al., 2013; Ryan & Deci, 2017; Shir et al., 2019). Furthermore, life satisfaction seems to facilitate entrepreneurship and the ability to innovate in-site by attracting highly qualified human resources (Glaeser et al., 2010; Smith et al., 2013).
Subjective wellbeing seems to be important for several aspects related to different types of entrepreneurship, for example the level of wellbeing perceived in certain cities and regions (Acs et al., 2014; Audretsch & Belitski, 2015).
The relation between these two fields is yet somehow unexploited. Although there is a vast amount of studies that focus on entrepreneurship, studies that relate entrepreneurship and happiness or well-being are much more scarce (Gonçalves, 2018).
Thus, the purpose of this chapter is to verify the existence of a correlation between entrepreneurship and happiness, using available data on entrepreneurship and happiness indexes. This is the main subject of investigation. On the other hand, if there is a relation, the subsequent question is to understand what kind of relation exists, namely which of the variables may have a greater explanatory value than others.
Regarding the indexes, we take as reference the values of the WHR and the values of the Global Entrepreneurship Index (GEI), respectively for happiness and entrepreneurship, as will be clarified below.
The structure of this paper will follow the following points: a literature revision, presented in Literature Review section, analyzing the main contributions identified on the evolution of entrepreneurship and the relationship between happiness and socio-economic factors, on the influence of entrepreneurship on happiness and also on comparisons between levels of entrepreneurship and happiness.