The entrepreneurial pursuits of opportunities by individuals with formal education tend to differ from those lacking formal education. Past research suggests that opportunity costs, access to resources, and personal motivations help explain this variance. Whereas regulatory efficiency can bolster these factors, the structural effects of institutions can create hindrances. On these grounds, we draw from institutional theory to examine how regulatory efficiency affects opportunity entrepreneurship among individuals with varying levels of formal education. We incorporate variables of business freedom, labor freedom, and monetary freedom based on past research in this area. Results, based on 845,000 individuals across 74 countries drawn from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, show that monetary freedom enables opportunity entrepreneurship for more educated individuals. Similarly, results show that business freedom enables opportunity entrepreneurship for less educated individuals. Our findings suggest that certain regulatory efficiencies widen the gaps between more educated and less educated entrepreneurs when they are pursuing opportunities instead of undertaking a necessity with their ventures. We discuss the implications of these findings for entrepreneurship theory and practice.
