Based on the Institutional Theory of Douglas North and the contributions made by William Baumol, this article is aimed at describing the competitive environment for the development of entrepreneurship in the most important four cities of the Colombian Caribbean coast: Barranquilla, Sincelejo, Cartagena and Santa Marta. This study, in first place, takes into account the opinion of experts who researched for the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Caribe 2010. Those experts were chosen as they are real influential characters and experts of the entrepreneurial area of knowledge; for this reason, the analysis of their perspectives turns to be the key source element to contextualize entrepreneurship and to create the adequate strategies for the development of global competitiveness in the Caribbean region. There are two categories of research results: on one hand, the experts´ opinions about different categories in formal institutions such as policies and programs, publics, education and intellectual property legislation; on the other hand, those categories existing in informal institutions as social conditioning factors for entrepreneurship like motivations, perceptions about opportunities, the innovation culture, among others. The results of this study show a weak formal institution caused by unreliable public policies, insufficient financial supports and incentives but having informal institutions with social improving factors. This becomes in some way a hostile environment in which entrepreneurs have to perform and through which their motivation, bearing capacity and desire to step ahead definitely make their success.
