The general theory of culture, entrepreneurship, innovation, and quality-of-life: Comparing nurturing versus thwarting enterprise start-ups in BRIC, Denmark, Germany, and the United States ☆ Arch G. Woodside a, ⁎, Pedro Mir Bernal b , Alicia Coduras c a Boston College b University Navarra c University of Valencia abstract article info Article history: Received 28 December 2014 Received in revised form 15 August 2015 Accepted 17 October 2015 Available online xxxx This study examines influences on quality-of-life of national cultures as complex wholes and entrepreneurship activities in Brazil, Russia, India, China, Germany, and the United States (the six focal nations) plus Denmark (a small-size, economically-developed, nation). The study tests McClelland's (1961) and more recent scholars' proposition that some cultural configurations nurture entrepreneur startups while other cultures are biased toward thwarting startups. The study applies complexity theory to develop and empirically test a general theory of cultures', entrepreneurship's, and innovation's impact on quality-of-life across nations. Because culture repre- sents a complex whole of attitudes, beliefs, values, and behavior, the study applies a set-theoretic approach to theory development and testing of alternative cultural configurations. Each of 28 economical developed and developing nations is scored for the level of the national cultures for each of six focal countries. The study selected for the study enables multi-way comparisons of culture-entrepreneurship-innovation-QOL among large- and small-size developing and developed nations. The findings graphically present the complex national cultural con- figuration (x-axis) with entrepreneur nurture/thwart (y-axis) of the 28 nations compared to the six focal nations. The findings also include recognizing national cultures (e.g., Switzerland, USA) nurturing entrepreneurial behav- ior versus other national cultures (e.g., Brazil and India) thwarting entrepreneurial behavior. The study concludes with a call to recognize the implicit shift in culturally implicit thinking and behavior necessary for advancing na- tional platforms designed to successfully nurture entrepreneurship. Entrepreneur strategy implications include the observation that actions nurturing firm start-ups by nations low in entrepreneurship will unlikely to be successful without reducing such nations' high levels of corruption. © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Complexity theory Culture Entrepreneurship Innovation Configuration QOL 1. Introduction: National cultures, capitalism, entrepreneurship, and computing cultural complex wholes The present study quantifies (i.e., models) and empirically examines national cultures as complex wholes and confirms how a few unique cultural configurations nurture, while others thwart, replicative (i.e., frequently observed new small shops) and innovative (usual and often high-tech) entrepreneurial start-ups. The study supports and deepens McClelland's (1961) perspective on how personal achieve- ment motivation favorably impacts entrepreneurial behavior and Schumpeter's (1942/1976) theory of how entrepreneurship as innova- tion favorably impacts a nation's quality-of-life. The present study performs “qualitative comparative analyses” (Ragin 2008) to differentiate large versus small nations with cultures that support high entrepreneurship and innovation that indicate high QOL as well as large versus small nations with cultures that thwart entrepreneurship and innovation that indicate low QOL. The study shows that while the USA and Denmark rank among the top ten in entrepreneurship, both display similar factors in their cultural configu- rations that support high entrepreneurship activity, but also unique factors in these configurations that express cultural nuances between the two nations. “Culture configuration” represents the complex whole of a culture at the national level, a nation's DNA. Using Hofstede's (2001) cultural values, the foundational cultural codes for the USA and Denmark differ on one of four major values: masculinity (MA), individu- alism (ID), power distance (PD), and uncertainty avoidance (UA). Industrial Marketing Management xxx (2015) xxx–xxx ☆ The authors express their gratitude to the Global Entrepreneurship Research Association (GERA) for providing “National Experts Survey” data from the GEM 2014 study for use in the present study. The authors appreciate the careful reviews and insights for improving the paper provided by the anonymous reviewers and editor on an earlier versions of this article. The data analysis and interpretation of the GEM 2014 experts data is original in the present study and not necessarily indicate the views of members of the GERA. ⁎ Corresponding author at: Boston College, Carroll School of Management, Department of Marketing, 140 Commonwealth Avenue, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467 USA. E-mail address: arch.woodside@bc.edu (A.G. Woodside). IMM-07267; No of Pages 24 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2015.11.003 0019-8501/© 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Industrial Marketing Management Please cite this article as: Woodside, A.G., et al., The general theory of culture, entrepreneurship, innovation, and quality-of-life: Comparing nurturing versus thwarting enterprise ..., Industrial Marketing Management (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2015.11.003