DIAGNOSIS OF THE ENTREPRENEURIAL ECOSYSTEM IN CÓRDOBA, ARGENTINA: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

The Covid-19 pandemic brought us back to the situation of a war economy of an unknown crisis (CEPAL, 2020). The global economy entered a recession and the industrial blackout affected intermediate goods, affecting many world industries (Ramonet, 2020). This situation worsened when the disease spread to Central Asia, affecting Europe very aggressively. Then followed the United States and Latin America. During 2020, the world economy fell 4.5%, strongly impacting Latin America and Argentina, where GDP fell 9.9% (IMF, 2020). Large, medium and small companies were forced to digitize. During 2021, the economic engines began to ignite with the advance of vaccination, with generation of entrepreneurship taking on special importance as a source of diversification of the business fabric and promoters of innovation, in a context where digitization was necessary for the survival of the business. This is a topic that has always fostered the interest of public and private actors for the contribution of the competitiveness framework as well as for the generation of employment. Great challenges arise in its approach. Although micro-SMEs are the great generators of employment in Córdoba and Argentina, there is a big vulnerability in the sector. In the period from 2008 to 2016, an average of 65,000 companies were born in Argentina per year, and 59,000 closed. The macroeconomic conditions marked by high inflation, recurring devaluations and systematic recessions make the country an environment of high business risk. Adding aspects such as tax pressure, the lack of access to the foreign currency inflows and outflows, and the low investment in R&D&i, companies are born and die as enterprises (Mc. Dermott, 2014). An explanatory or causal investigation will be carried out by searching for statistical information from databases such as CEPAL, INDEC and specialized agencies of both the Province and the City of Córdoba. The intention is to provide aspects and lines of action that contribute to the strengthening of an inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem. Keywords: entrepreneurship, digitization, inclusion.