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This paper aims at an understanding of acquisition processes in a strongly industrialized and export‐oriented economy in Central Europe. Drawing on a proximity framework and behaviour theory, the paper investigates that the geographical proximity dimension is more influential than the cognitive proximity dimension. At the same time, cognitive proximity matters more for foreign firms investing into the economy than for domestic acquisitions. While the role of cognitive proximity diminished during the economic crisis, geographical proximity keeps its importance throughout the economic cycle. Moreover, cognitive proximity has become more important for acquisitions of large companies and less for SMEs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to better understand the significance of spatial context conditions and personal attributes for early-stage entrepreneurship. We combine individual with regional and national level data using multilevel analysis to test our hypotheses. We differentiate between two phases in the entrepreneurial process as well as between general and ambitious entrepreneurship. First, we show that both the national and the regional context significantly impact individual entrepreneurial activities. Second, individual level characteristics exert the greatest overall influence, but the direction of this influence is not stable. Third, the impact of the three levels varies across the different phases in the entrepreneurial process as well as between different types of start-ups. Fourth, we demonstrate that cross-level interactions between individual characteristics and spatial context factors are important in explaining entrepreneurial activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]