Previous Entrepreneurial Experience Research Articles

The Impact of Curbing Housing Speculation on Household Entrepreneurship in China

We document a speculation channel and complement the well-documented collateral channels by offering novel evidence about the effect of curbing housing speculation policies We estimate the positive effect of discouraging housing speculation on household entrepreneurship in China. By exploiting the city-level variations in the stringency of home purchase restrictions between 2011 and 2019 and five waves of China Household Finance Survey (CHFS) data, we find that discouraging housing speculation significantly increases the likelihood of local households starting a business. To address endogeneity concerns, we exploit plausibly exogenous variation using IV estimations and DID research design. The positive effect is stronger for local multiple-home owners, homeowners without mortgage debt, households with previous entrepreneurial experience, households of risk-loving, and households with large assets. This conclusion is robust with city-level evidence. In the mechanism discussion, we find that discouraging housing speculation significantly reduces the likelihood and the plans of local households to purchase new homes and lowers the house price expectations of local households (thus the opportunity cost of starting a business). We also provide evidence supporting the view that discouraging housing speculation increases entrepreneurial opportunities, innovative development, and local households’ social network investments, all of which contribute to starting a business. The results imply that policies to curb housing speculation can lead to beneficial spillover on entrepreneurship and the local economy, as well as contribute to the sustainability of economic growth.

Knowledge transfer from and within digital incubators: does the context of entrepreneurship matter? The case of women entrepreneurs in France

PurposeThis paper aims to refer to the knowledge transfer of entrepreneurial skills between digital incubators and nascent entrepreneurs. It questions the role of the context and of the richness of the ecosystems in which these women evolve, as defined by Welter and Baker (2021) on such an attempt.Design/methodology/approachThis research is based on a qualitative study that refers to case studies of women nascent entrepreneurs who evolve into two different contexts – one rich zone and one deprived economic one of the French Parisian Region – and who integrated the same digital incubator.FindingsContext does partly matter: besides the “Where”, the “Who” and, moreover, the level of education and previous entrepreneurial experience really matters, and only educated women, whatever the other components of context, seem to be capable to receive the “best” knowledge transfer from incubators. Second, incubators can be considered as to be a knowledge hub that allow knowledge transfer not only from trainers and coaches to women nascent entrepreneurs but also among women entrepreneurs. This paper concludes with a discussion on the role of digital training and coaching in such knowledge transfers.Research limitations/implicationsFindings are limited to a specific place (the region of Paris). Therefore, women entrepreneurs evolve in more different contexts but the national entrepreneurial and institutional context remains the same. There should be need to explore the role of an incubator that evolves into more contrasted contexts.Practical implicationsIf results can be generalized, this means incubators should differentiate their services, teaching and coaching expertize according to the education level of nascent entrepreneurs: This is a plaidoyer against institutionalized incubators that claim to be capable of targeting any nascent (women) entrepreneurs.Social implicationsThis study is also a plaidoyer for more digital incubator to mix persons from different contexts, especially to welcome persons from more deprived economic zones.Originality/valueThe research reveals the role of context – and, some components of the context – intro coaching and training that are provided by online incubators. It contributes to the literature on knowledge transfer that is brought about by incubators. It also contributes to the literature in entrepreneurship by showing that some components among the others that define what we call “the context” matter more than others.

Employees' entrepreneurial human capital and firm performance

We introduce a new measure of human capital, defined as employees' former involvement in entrepreneurship. Such entrepreneurial human capital (EHC) complements traditional human capital measures accumulated through work experience and education. Using detailed longitudinal register data, we track the previous years of entrepreneurial experience for the population of employees in Swedish private sector firms. We provide evidence that higher EHC among employees is associated with significantly higher levels of firm productivity. The baseline result implies that a 10 % increase in employees being former entrepreneurs increases firm-level productivity by 3.9 %. Additionally, we provide evidence that heterogeneity in employees' previous entrepreneurial experience (e.g., the reason for entering and exiting entrepreneurship, type of venture, length of entrepreneurial experiences, and relatedness of technology) influences the impact of EHC on productivity. The results are shown to be robust to various estimation techniques, alternative definitions of EHC, and other performance measures.

Profiling (Non-)Nascent Entrepreneurs in Hungary Based on Machine Learning Approaches

In our study, we examined the characteristics of nascent entrepreneurs using the 2021 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor national representative data in Hungary. We examined our topic based on Arenius and Minitti’s four-category theory framework. In our research, we examined system-level feature sets with four machine learning modeling algorithms: multivariate adaptive regression spline (MARS), support vector machine (SVM), random forest (RF), and AdaBoost. Our results show that each machine algorithm can predict nascent entrepreneurs with over 90% adaptive cruise control (ACC) accuracy. Furthermore, the adaptation of the categories of variables based on the theory of Arenius and Minitti provides an appropriate framework for obtaining reliable predictions. Based on our results, it can be concluded that perceptual factors have different importance and weight along the optimal models, and if we include further reliability measures in the model validation, we cannot pinpoint only one algorithm that can adequately identify nascent entrepreneurs. Accurate forecasting requires a careful and predictor-level analysis of the algorithms’ models, which also includes the systemic relationship between the affecting factors. An important but unexpected result of our study is that we identified that Hungarian NEs have very specific previous entrepreneurial and business ownership experience; thus, they can be defined not as a beginner but as a novice enterprise.

Regulations and the characteristics of entrepreneurs

In this study, we examine whether different types of regulations affect the composition of small business owners in U.S. states. We employ a national survey titled the “United States Small Business Friendliness Survey”. This survey asks small business owners their opinions on different types of regulations (i.e. “health and safety regulations”, “employment regulations”, “tax code”, “licensing regulations”, “environmental regulations”, and “zoning regulations”). The survey also asks business owners questions on their own characteristics like “position in the firm”, “previous entrepreneurial experience”, “gender”, “age”, “political view”, “education level”, and “race”. Our results show that each regulation category affects almost all categories of owner characteristics. The exceptions are the following: “Health and safety regulations” do not affect position in the firm, “employment regulations” do not affect gender and age, “tax code” does not affect position in the firm and age, “licensing regulations” and “environmental regulations” do not affect position in the firm and gender, and “zoning regulations” do not affect position in the firm, previous experience, and gender. “Health and safety regulations” affect gender, age, political view, education level, and race. “Employment regulations” affect previous entrepreneurial experience, political view, education level, and race. “Tax code” affects previous entrepreneurial experience, gender, political view, education level, and race. “Licensing regulations” affect previous entrepreneurial experience, age, political view, education level, and race. “Environmental regulations” affect previous entrepreneurial experience, age, political view, education level, and race. “Zoning regulations” affect age, political view, education level, and race. Overall, our findings indicate that regulations affect the geographical choice of entrepreneurs. The states with a more favorable score in a certain area of regulation attract a certain group of entrepreneurs. Policymakers should consider these findings when devising their strategies to attract certain types of entrepreneurs to their states.

Efekti pola, starosti i obrazovanja na preduzetničku orijentaciju i namere među frilenserima

The topic of this paper are the values of the individual entrepreneurial orientation and the Theory of planned behavior dimensions, among freelancers in the Western Balkan countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, and Serbia). The effects of four control variables: gender, age, education level, and previous entrepreneurial experience were also examined. Freelancers best perceive support for an entrepreneurial venture as well as their proactivity. Entrepreneurial intentions were assessed as the worst. The greatest impact on the observed dimensions occurs in the division of the sample into freelancers who have/do not have previous experience in entrepreneurship. As for the other control variables, statistically significant differences occur in only three other cases: dimensions RT - Risk-taking and PBC - Perceived behavioral control on the side of male freelancers, and dimension IN - Innovativeness on the side of younger freelancers. A comparison was made with a similar study, where the respondents were conventional employees. In general, freelancers have greater entrepreneurial intentions than conventional employees. Freelancers are more consistent in terms of entrepreneurial intentions: there are no differences in these intentions if the sample is divided according to the gender and age of freelancers. These results are discussed in the paper.

Do Business-Friendly States Attract Female Entrepreneurs?

In this study, we examine whether there is a significant difference in small business owner characteristics in business-friendly states in the U.S. versus in less friendly states. In the survey that we employ, business-friendliness has four components. These are the ease of hire, ease of start, training/networking programs, and regulations. The owner characteristics including “position in the firm”, “previous entrepreneurial experience”, “gender”, “age”, “political view”, “education level”, and “race” are also included in the survey. Our results for “overall business friendliness” show that, in business-friendly states, there are more female owners and experienced owners when compared to the other states. In these states, there are more conservatives but fewer liberals and independents. Also, in these states, we are seeing more technical college and high school graduates and fewer community college graduates and master’s graduates. Finally, in these states, we see fewer Asian or Hispanic owners when compared to the other states.

Refugee entrepreneurship in the agri-food industry: The Swedish experience

Following the recent mass migration of refugees to the European Union in 2015 and 2016, many EU countries took significant steps aimed at improving the socio-economic integration of the refugees. This study examines refugee entrepreneurship in rural areas in Sweden as evidenced in the agri-food industry. Entrepreneurship is often considered a sustainable activity that can promote refugees' economic independence and social integration. The rural setting offers promising employment opportunities for refugees with agricultural backgrounds or interest. Qualitative research methodology, based on 25 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with refugees, is used to examine refugee entrepreneurs’ experiences in the various phases of the entrepreneurial process, from start-up and growth to success/exit. The study found that refugee entrepreneurs are motivated and challenged variously as they start and operate their entrepreneurial activities. For example, they are motivated by the discovery of niche markets, previous entrepreneurial experience, and the availability of family and government support. Challenges include legislative hurdles, management and technical problems, and insufficient financial and other support. Factors both within and outside their control influence the survival of their entrepreneurship.

Puzzlingly Divergent Trends in Household Wealth and Business Formation

The rate of new business formation has declined sharply in recent decades, raising concerns among economists about job and productivity growth. This observed decline in business formation is likely to be juxtaposed to changes in characteristics such as household wealth that affect households’ propensity to become entrepreneurs. Economic theories of business formation suggest that wealthier households are more likely to start a business because wealth allows them to more easily reach a profitable scale. Justin Barnette and Andrew Glover use data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics from 1989 to 2015 to estimate the effect of wealth on the probability of a household starting a business while taking other observable characteristics into account. They find a puzzling divergence: business formation declined over the past three decades even as household wealth increased. However, they find no evidence that the relationship between business formation and household wealth has changed in the cross section. Instead, changes in other characteristics—most notably, previous entrepreneurial experience—likely explain the decline. Their findings suggest a dynamic relationship between wealth accumulation, past experience, and new business formation that deserves further study.

The Influence of Endogenous Factors on Entrepreneurial Success Among Youths in Masvingo Urban, Zimbabwe

This study sought to establish the influence of endogenous factors on entrepreneurial success among youths. The study adopted a quantitative correlational research approach. The population of the study comprised of 420 youth entrepreneurs in Masvingo Urban. A sample of 201 respondents was drawn from the population using a random sampling technique. The data was collected using a structured questionnaire and analysed using descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis. The study found that the level of education, management skills, previous entrepreneurial experience, cultural background and the personal characteristics, attributes, skills, and attitudes of the youth entrepreneurs influenced their entrepreneurial success. The level of education, entrepreneurial training and the requisite technical skills also helped the youth entrepreneurs to grow their businesses. The cultural background was found to have an influence on the youth entrepreneurial success. The study recommended that availability of funds, coupled with training and enhancement of entrepreneurial skills by government agencies has the potential to improve the entrepreneurial activities.

Uticaj kontrolnih varijabli na preduzetničke namere među zaposlenim licima

The paper presents the results of the study of individual entrepreneurial orientation dimensions, the achievement dimension and the theory of planned behavior dimensions, depending on seven variables: the respondents' gender, their age, the educational level of the respondents, the ownership structure of the enterprises, the respondents' previous experience in entrepreneurship, their perceived job performance, and their perceived finances. The specificity of the research is that the respondents are employed persons. The sample included 540 respondents from 72 organizations in Serbia. Data analysis was performed via a t-test. A statistically significant difference in the influence of the observed variables exists in most cases, except for the variable-the respondents' level of education. Thus, four of the seven hypotheses were fully confirmed, two were partially confirmed, while one hypothesis was rejected. The profile of an employed person who, potentially, has the greatest chances of becoming an entrepreneur is the following: a younger man with a high school diploma (a degree does not have such a significant impact), who is employed in a private company, has previous entrepreneurial experience, is successful at work and has adequate finances.

Um Retrato das Startups de uma Aceleradora Localizada em Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais

A renovação e o desenvolvimento de uma economia dependem da inovação, que muito se relaciona com novos empreendimentos e startups. Este artigo tem por objetivo caracterizar as startups existentes no ecossistema de inovação de Belo Horizonte (Minas Gerais), considerando aquelas participantes em um Programa de Aceleração. Para tanto, adotou-se a pesquisa qualitativa com abordagem descritiva e estudo de caso com enfoque no Programa de Aceleração da Techmall S.A. Pela pesquisa realizada, foi possível constatar que o perfil do empreendedor é predominantemente de jovens, sem vivência empreendedora anterior, com formação em ciências exatas. Quanto às Startups, a maioria está em fase de operação em diversos segmentos; receberam algum prêmio, e não são resultados de spin-offs acadêmicas ou empresariais. A forma predominante de contratação de seus colaboradores é por estágio temporário e por regime de bolsa. Foi possível verificar que seus principais desafios são osde escalar venda e de captar cliente (desafios internos), alémde obter capital inicial, financiamentos e investimentos (desafios externos). Para enfrentar tais desafios, a aceleradora deveria auxiliar no mapeamento de clientes e na determinação de estratégias para vendas, considerando que isso é uma das dificuldades apresentadas. Por fim, o estudo conclui que é preciso que o Ecossistema de Inovação Mineiro esteja atento aos desafios encontrados, de modo a formular políticas para minimizá-los.

Proposal of a new research construct in female entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship has been a gender-defined phenomenon for several decades. It has been presented as a typically male domain which for its demanding performance requires typical male characteristics. In this paper, we follow the suggestions of researchers of female entrepreneurs and focus on the research of three groups of female entrepreneurs. We propose that female entrepreneurs in different life stages have distinguished forms of human and social capital, and we apply the factors of those capitals to be measured. We observe the influence of parents, maternity as a metaphor for family involvement and family responsibilities, friends, and the broader environment on social capital. We discussed female entrepreneurship using two functions - as emotional support and incentives and as an instrumental social capital that provides access to information, resources and business partners. We added previous entrepreneurial experience, the level of education attained, business knowledge acquired at school and specific training, industry experience, previous managerial experience to the human capital function. With our model, we introduced the theory of life expectancy of women into entrepreneurship theory, which brings us closer to understanding the external influences on entrepreneurial aspirations and motivations of women of different ages.

Determinants that influence the performance of women entrepreneurs in micro and small enterprises in Ethiopia

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to explore determinants that influence women entrepreneurs’ performance in micro and small enterprises in Gondar city, Northwest Ethiopia, and in turn contribute to entrepreneurship-related literature mainly in developing countries.Design/methodology/approachThe study employed an explanatory research design with agreement of primary data collection via a cross-sectional survey questionnaire followed by quantitative research approach. The sample of this study was 180 women entrepreneurs and selected using random sampling technique.FindingsThe findings of this study revealed that educational level, previous entrepreneurial experience, access to business training, access to finance, access to business information, government support, land ownership, and tax are significant in explaining women entrepreneurs’ performance in one hand. On the other side, however, age, marital status, access to market, and access to physical infrastructure are found to be insignificant variables in determining women entrepreneurs’ performance.Research limitations/implicationsThe study used one time data for determinants like level of education, previous working experience, age, and profitability of the enterprise. Thus, due to frequent change in such variables, the study may not reflect the dynamics of the data, which would have a convincing influence on the conclusion. In addition, the research has only consisted of 180 samples. Moreover, such number may not represent the whole population of the entrepreneurs of Ethiopian MSEs. In future research, it is advisable to expand study factors, use interviews as a research tool, and make a comparison between women and men entrepreneurial performances.Practical implicationsThe paper might serve as an input for officials to consider such determinants and encourage an environment that increases women entrepreneurs’ performance. In addition, the study might help women entrepreneurs in addressing the factors affecting performance to take actions towards improving their performance and in turn contribute to job creation, wealth, innovation, and poverty alleviation.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the literature on the determinants of women entrepreneurs’ performance in micro and small enterprises. Specifically, it tests the impact of educational level, age, marital status, previous entrepreneurial experience, access to business training, access to finance, access to business information, access to market, access to physical infrastructure, government support, land ownership, and tax on the performance of women entrepreneurs.

Fighting Scaling Challenges With Internal Means: A Paradox

While high-growth firms are important providers of innovation, employment, and wealth, it is not clear how a young firm’s top management team navigates the process of scaling their business into such a firm. One particular challenge young firms must learn to overcome if they want to grow is the ‘people’ challenge. This paper studies the boundary conditions of the adoption of high-performance work practices as a means to help overcome the growing pains of these firms. Building on the attention-based view, we show that the adoption of these practices uncovers a paradox which is subject to the influence of financial performance and the team’s previous entrepreneurial experience.

Characteristics and challenges of the Hungarian startup ecosystem

In this paper, the authors’ aim to explore the Hungarian startup ecosystem on both the demand side and the supply side. To achieve this, they conducted a survey reaching both startups and investors. In the survey, the authors observed features of Hungarian startup entrepreneurs such as gender, age, education, previous entrepreneurial experience, and their motivation for establishing startup companies. Furthermore, the authors focused on financing, location, target markets, employment, and operational difficulties. They also examined the attitudes of the startupers and of the ecosystem’s other actors such as venture capital investors, incubator houses, accelerators, corporations and co-working spaces regarding various characteristics of the ecosystem. They deemed cooperation between the members of the ecosystem, international relations and the opportunity for startupers to start again after a failed startup to be the most important characteristics. They perceived the strongest characteristic of the Hungarian ecosystem to be social events (meetups and networking), while the most problematic: the opportunity to start again after failing a startup and the required level of entrepreneurial administration.

The effects of previous entrepreneurial experience on subsequent wage-employment wages

The article considers influence of entrepreneurial experience on the wageemployment wages. Empirical analysis is based on the RLMS-HSE panel data, 2000—2013, with using fixed effects models on the overall sample, five-year- and flexible window. Results show that transition from entrepreneurship to wageemployment leads to penalty of wages. Wage growth rate of former entrepreneurs’ lag behind the wage growth rate of workers without entrepreneurial experience. The size of wage-penalty decreases if the profession remains the same in transition from entrepreneurship to wage-employment.

Linking entrepreneurial and market orientation to the SME’s performance growth: the moderating role of entrepreneurial experience and networks

Entrepreneurial orientation and market orientation (EO and MO, respectively) have received extensive research attention in the past several decades. Although scholars widely agree that both MO and EO are critical to firms’ performances, a better understanding is still needed about how market and entrepreneurial orientation develop over time as well as their relative impact on the growth of the SME’s performance. This study does not consider MO and EO as generic resources that always positively influence firms’ performances; instead, it tries to explore contingent elements, such as social and business networks and accumulated entrepreneurial experience. The hypotheses were tested on 191 small and medium-sized electronic firms located in an Italian geographical cluster during two periods: 2005 and 2016. This study suggests that SMEs, which develop social networks, may enjoy considerable advantages from entrepreneurial and market orientation, improving their performance benefits. Moreover, our results show that previous entrepreneurial experience, when specific, can reinforce the impact of entrepreneurial and market orientation on firms’ performance growth. This analysis makes several important contributions to the management literature on the strategic orientation of firms, the entrepreneurial experience and network development.

Entrepreneurs and innovation: The contingent role of institutional factors

Entrepreneurs play a key role in introducing innovations into the market. However, the extant literature has found that the degree of innovation within new ventures varies considerably and that these differences can be related to the individual factors of entrepreneurs. In this article, we go one step further and suggest that the influence of individual factors on innovation is contingent on the institutional context. We use a sample of more than 140,000 entrepreneurs from 101 countries that have participated in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) project between 2005 and 2015. Our results show that individual characteristics of the entrepreneur, such as risk tolerance, entrepreneurial alertness, education and previous entrepreneurial experience, influence innovation in new ventures but that their effect is reinforced by an institutional context with high economic freedom.

Senior Entrepreneurship: A Selective Review and Research Agenda

Scholarly interest in entrepreneurial activity by older members of society has been rising, reflected in the growing tally of publications about senior entrepreneurship as a distinct form of entrepreneurship. Our goal is to review and communicate the key conceptual approaches and empirical findings about senior entrepreneurs’ characteristics and behaviors, and to propose a research agenda. We analyze the literature by focusing on two research questions. i. What determines senior entrepreneurship? ii. What determines the performance of senior entrepreneurs? Although senior entrepreneurs are not a homogeneous group, they are: more likely driven by non-pecuniary motivations than pecuniary ones; mostly male, married, and with high levels of education attainment. In general, senior entrepreneurs have previous entrepreneurial experience and display high levels of self-efficacy. A shift to self-employment later in life often leads to positive changes on individuals’ quality of life, but negative impacts on income. Existing research is mostly based on data collected to assess entrepreneurs in general and not designed to analyze variables of specific interest for senior subjects. Future research should seek to develop primary data focusing on the relationship between quality of life and performance outcomes, and entrepreneurial activity’s impact on active ageing. Senior entrepreneurship needs to be examined through multidisciplinary lenses including psychology, gerontology, economics, and sociology.