<p>This study investigates the complex relationships between corruption, democracy, and entrepreneurship, with a particular focus on high-tech and low-tech ventures across 102 countries. While existing literature generally highlights corruption’s negative impact on entrepreneurial activity and democracy’s positive influence, recent research presents conflicting findings. To address these inconsistencies, we propose a novel theoretical framework, leveraging a unique data set. Our analysis suggests that high-tech entrepreneurship, which is more inclined with opportunity-driven and innovative-intensive activity, is less influenced by local corruption and more associated with broader democratic factors. In contrast, low-tech ventures, which are more inclined by necessity-based factors and are less innovative-oriented, are more vulnerable to corruption’s negative effects while showing significantly weaker connections to democratic parameters. This divergence helps explain the varying levels of entrepreneurship observed in countries with different levels of democratic governance. Furthermore, it reconciles the conflicting evidence regarding democracy’s role in fostering entrepreneurship and challenges the assumed universally positive relationship between democratic institutions and entrepreneurial activity. Our study contributes to the entrepreneurship literature by offering a more nuanced understanding of how corruption and democracy differentially impact high-tech and low-tech entrepreneurship, providing important insights for policymakers and practitioners seeking to cultivate entrepreneurial ecosystems.</p>