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on Entrepreneurship |
| By: | Erik Stam (University of Cambridge); Roy Thurik (Erasmus University Rotterdam); Peter van der Zwan (Erasmus University Rotterdam) |
| Abstract: | Entrepreneurs exit their business due to selection mechanisms experienced in the market place. Next to this well known ex-post decision to exit, entrepreneurs select ex-ante whether they are willing to pursue an entrepreneurial career at all, or to give up these entrepreneurial intentions. This paper compares the role of personal and ecological factors as determinants of these two types of selection: exit in real and in imagined markets. Entrepreneurs in imagined markets are more likely to exit in strong welfare state regimes, while real entrepreneurs are more likely to exit when they have low levels of human capital and when they are located in metropolitan areas. |
| Keywords: | entrepreneurship; nascent entrepreneurs; entrepreneurial exit; market selection |
| JEL: | J23 L26 |
| Date: | 2008–03–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20080031&r=ent |
| By: | Philipp Koellinger (Erasmus University Rotterdam); Maria Minniti (Southern Methodist University); Christian Schade (Humboldt University Berlin) |
| Abstract: | Across countries, women own significantly fewer businesses than do men. We show that this is due, in large part, to the fact that the propensity to start businesses of women is significantly lower than that of men. The lower propensity of women, in turn, appears to be highly correlated to women’s lower average levels of optimism and self-confidence, and higher fear of failure. Ceteris paribus, women and men have different perceptions of the business environment and, as a result, make different decisions. We provide some evidence that this may be universally true and independent from culture, although country specific factors seem to influence perceptual differences between genders. We also show that women who are more self-confident and undeterred by failure have a greater probability to start a business than men with similar characteristics. |
| Keywords: | Nascent entrepreneurship; gender; perceptions; judgment and decision making |
| JEL: | J0 J2 |
| Date: | 2008–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20080035&r=ent |
| By: | Lans, T.; Hulsink, W.; Baert, H.; Mulder, H.M. (Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), RSM Erasmus University) |
| Abstract: | The concept of competence, as it is brought into play in current research, is a potentially powerful construct for entrepreneurship education research and practice. Although the concept has been the subject of strong debate in educational research in general, critical analysis of how it has been used, applied and experienced in entrepreneurship education practice is scarce. This article contributes specifically to the discussion of entrepreneurial competence by theoretically unfolding and discussing the concept. Subsequently, the implications of applying a competence-based approach in entrepreneurship education are illustrated and discussed based on analysis of two cases that were aimed at identifying, diagnosing and eventually developing entrepreneurial competence in small businesses in the Netherlands and Flanders (Belgium). The cases show that the added value of focussing on competence in entrepreneurship education lies in making the (potential) small business owner aware of the importance of certain entrepreneurial competencies and in providing direction for competence development. In this process it is fundamental that competence is treated as an item for discussion and interpretation, rather than as a fixed template of boxes to be ticked. Furthermore the cases highlight that a competence-based approach does not determine the type of educational and instructional strategies to be used. Its consequential power in that respect is limited. |
| Keywords: | entrepreneurship;education;competence-based training;small business;entrepreneurial learning;competence |
| Date: | 2008–05–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:eureri:1765012466&r=ent |
| By: | Hessel Oosterbeek (University of Amsterdam); Mirjam C. van Praag (University of Amsterdam); Auke IJsselstein (University of Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the impact of a leading entrepreneurship education program on college students’ entrepreneurship competencies and intentions using an instrumental variables approach in a difference-in-differences framework. We exploit that the program was offered to students at one location of a school but not at another location of the same school. Location choice (and thereby treatment) is instrumented by the relative distance of locations to parents’ place of residence. The results show that the program does not have the intended effects: the effect on students’ self-assessed entrepreneurial skills is insignificant and the effect on the intention to become an entrepreneur is even significantly negative. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship education; program evaluation; entrepreneur competencies; entrepreneur intentions |
| JEL: | A20 C31 H43 H75 I20 J24 L26 |
| Date: | 2008–04–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20080038&r=ent |
| By: | Meuleman,M.; Amess, K.; Wright, M.; Scholes, L. (Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School) |
| Abstract: | Agency theory has focused on buyouts as a governance and control device to increase profitability, organizational efficiency and limited attention to growth. A strategic entrepreneurship view of buyouts incorporates upside incentives for value creation associated with growth as well as efficiency gains. In this paper, we develop the complementarity between agency theory and strategic entrepreneurship perspectives to examine the performance implications for different types of buyouts. Further, we study how the involvement of private equity firms is related to the performance of the post-buyout firm. These issues are examined for a sample of 238 private equity backed buyouts in the UK between 1993 and 2003. Implications for theory and practice are suggested. |
| Date: | 2008–06–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:vlg:vlgwps:2008-05&r=ent |
| By: | Michael D. Giandrea (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics); Kevin E. Cahill (Analysis Group, Inc.); Joseph F. Quinn (Boston College) |
| Abstract: | What role does self-employment play in the retirement process? Older Americans are staying in the labor force longer than prior trends would have predicted and many change jobs later in life. These job transitions are often within the same occupation or across occupations within wage- and-salary employment. The transition can also be out of wage-and-salary work and into self employment. Indeed, national statistics show that self employment becomes more prevalent with age, partly because self employment provides older workers with opportunities not found in traditional wage-and-salary jobs, such as flexibility in hours worked and independence. This paper analyzes transitions into and out of self employment among older workers who have had career jobs. We utilize the Health and Retirement Study, a nationally-representative dataset of older Americans, to investigate the prevalence of self employment among older workers who made a job transition later in life and to explore the factors that determine the choice of wage- and-salary employment or self employment. We find that post-career transitions into and out of self employment are common and that health status, career occupation, and financial variables are important determinants of these transitions. As older Americans and the country as a whole face financial strains in retirement income in the years ahead, self employment may be a vital part of the pro-work solution. |
| Date: | 2008–04–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:boc:bocoec:684&r=ent |
| By: | Elena Cefis; Mihaela-Livia Ghita |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates whether involvement in mergers and acquisitions (M&As) triggers distinct patterns of innovative behaviour across firms situated at different points on the firm size distribution. Firms use more and more M&As as mechanisms to bridge the gap between where they are and what they want to achieve in terms of innovation and performance. We explore the different impact of M&A activity on the likelihood that firms begin to innovate using an unique dataset combining innovation and economic firm-level data from two different sources: the 4 waves of Community Innovation Survey and the Business Register, for the Dutch manufacturing sector. The analysis is carried out at different size classes. The results show that both new entry and persistence in innovative activities are fostered by M&A involvement. Medium firms are the ones showing the highest probabilities of entering /persisting in innovative activities after M&As. For small firms, M&As do not ease the overcome of “the innovative threshold”; on the contrary they seem to increase the probability of exiting innovative status in the post-merger period. |
| Keywords: | Mergers and acquisitions; innovation; small and medium enterprises; transition probabilities; probit models |
| JEL: | L11 L25 D21 C14 |
| Date: | 2008–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:use:tkiwps:0809&r=ent |