VARIATION IN THE LEVEL OF ACTIVITY ACROSS THE STAGES OF THE ENTREPRENEURIAL STARTUP PROCESS-EVIDENCE FROM 35 COUNTRIES

alrich and martínez (2001) pointed out that in "entrepreneurship many are called, butfew are chosen". many entrepreneurs try seriously to créate a las-ting organization, but most ofthem do notpass through the three stages ofthe entrepreneurial startup process. there is scarce research exploring the entrepre-neurial startup process, particularly studying across countries the prevalence of individuals in the different stages. this paper uses data collected across 35 countries participating in the 2005 global entrepreneurship monitor (gem) study and we examine whether individual-lev el factors and national culture are related to the ratio ofnascent entrepreneurs topotential entrepreneurs, and to the ratio ofbaby business owners topotential entrepreneurs. our results show that there is significant variation across countries in how many individuals are active in the different stages of the entrepreneurial startup process. our results also indícate that gender and age are related to a high ratio ofnascent entrepreneurs to potential entrepreneurs.