S. That said, the country's long history of immigrant entrepreneurialism, however tenuous the notion might be today, has left a cultural legacy as evidenced by the relatively high entrepreneurship index score given to the U.S. There are other structural factors as well. In Europe in general, there are a myriad of impediments to entrepreneurialism, including legal barriers, a consumer sector that is unventuresome about new products, stronger unions and higher levels of state intervention in the marketplace (Phelps, 2007). Phelps also outlines several cultural factors as well, such as the desire amongst workers for responsibility, interesting work or the chance to take initiative. The United States scores much higher in these metrics than does Germany. He frames these as differences in economic dynamism.

There is a correlation between the level of entrepreneurship and the level of economic growth (Aernoudt, 2007). Aernoudt's findings imply that European SMEs do not have an adequate support structure, which he feels should be more entrepreneurial in mindset. The existing structure, he argues, is geared more towards larger enterprises. His case study is Wallonia, but that region has a similar entrepreneurship index to Germany and many of the structural issues are pan-European.

The outlook of SMEs is a factor as well. While entrepreneurs can reasonably be expected to focus primarily on domestic markets, SMEs often have the ability to take their business global. According to the U.S. Department Commerce, from 1987-2001 the number...

The focus will be on the differences in the ways that entrepreneurship and SME activity is conducted in the two countries, and will attempt to outline the root causes of these differences.
Works Cited

No author. 2006. Entrepreneurship in Germany. [Online] Available at http://www.internationalentrepreneurship.com/european%2Bentrepreneurship/germany_entrepreneur.asp?countryid=21&contid=4

Grieco, Elizabeth. 2006. Defining Foreign-Born and Foreigner in International Migration Statistics. Migration Policy Institute. [Online] Available at http://www.migrationinformation.org/Feature/display.cfm?ID=34

Camarota, Steven a. 2000. Reconsidering Immigrant Entrepreneurship. Center for Immigrant Studies. [Online] Available at http://www.cis.org/articles/1999/self-employment/index.html

Phelps, Edmund S. 2007. Entrepreneurial Culture: Why European Economies Lag Behind the U.S. Wall Street Journal. [Online] Available at http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110009657

Aernoudt, Rudy. 2007. From SME Policy to Entrepreneurship Policy. OECD. [Online] Available at http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/1/56/39745299.pdf

No author. 2008. Why Export? United States Department of Commerce. [Online] Available at http://www.buyusa.gov/philadelphia/whyexport.html