Start-ups launched by recent STEM university graduates: The impact of university education on entrepreneurial entry

Abstract

University education is a crucial source of human capital and influences graduates’ choice of entrepreneurship as a career. Here, we discuss the contrasting effects on recent graduates’ entrepreneurial entry of the type and quality of the human capital developed through university education in STEM fields. We determine which effects prevail by examining the graduates who obtained a Master of Science degree in the period 2005–2009 from Politecnico di Milano. A university curriculum specialized into a limited number of scientific and technical fields, training in economics and management, and the scientific quality of the university in the research fields pertinent to the graduate's degree programme are positively associated with entrepreneurial entry immediately after graduation, while the graduation grade is not. The graduation grade and the scientific quality of the university positively moderate the impact of curriculum specialization. These effects weaken over time, but are still relevant five years after graduation.