Related and unrelated industry variety and the internationalization of start-ups

We study the relationship between industry variety in a start-up's home location and the start-up's internationalization in terms of both the likelihood of and persistence in exporting. Using a unique sample of Swedish start-ups, we find that related industry variety is positively associated with exporting likelihood and persistence, whereas unrelated industry variety is positively associated with exporting likelihood and persistence when the start-ups’ employees possess technological knowledge. We also find that employees’ international experience strengthens the positive relationship between related industry variety and start-ups’ export persistence. We provide auxiliary evidence of the proposed mechanisms through which related and unrelated industry variety affects start-ups

How big should a young firm think?

These days, more and more companies are “born global” – that is, instead of starting out thinking of their market as merely their city or their country, they look at the whole world and see potential customers everywhere

Related and unrelated industry variety and the internationalization of start-ups

We study the relationship between industry variety in a start-up's home location and the start-up's internationalization in terms of both the likelihood of and persistence in exporting. Using a unique sample of Swedish start-ups, we find that related industry variety is positively associated with exporting likelihood and persistence, whereas unrelated industry variety is positively associated with exporting likelihood and persistence when the start-ups’ employees possess technological knowledge. We also find that employees’ international experience strengthens the positive relationship between related industry variety and start-ups’ export persistence. We provide auxiliary evidence of the proposed mechanisms through which related and unrelated industry variety affects start-ups’ internationalization—that is, through their effects on start-ups’ ability to launch novel products in foreign markets. The findings of our study provide policymakers preliminary evidence on th

The impact of digital start-up founders’ higher education on reaching equity investment milestones

This paper builds on human capital theory to assess the importance of formal education among graduate entrepreneurs. Using a sample of 4.953 digital start-ups the paper evaluates the impact of start-up founding teams’ higher education on the probability of securing equity investment and subsequent exit for investors. The main findings are: (1), teams with a founder that has a technical education are less likely to remain self-financed and are more likely to secure equity investment and to exit, but the impact of technical education declines with higher level degrees, (2) teams with a founder that has doctoral level business education are less likely to remain self-financed and have a higher probability of securing equity investment, while undergraduate and postgraduate business education have no significant effect, and (3) teams with a founder that has an undergraduate general education (arts and humanities) are less likely to remain self-financed and are more likely to secure equity investment and exit while postgraduate and doctoral general education have no significant effect on securing equity investment and exit. The findings enhance our understanding of factors that influence digital start-ups achieving equity milestones by showing the heterogeneous influence of different types of higher education, and therefore human capital, on new ventures achieving equity milestones. The results suggest that researchers and policy-makers should extend their consideration of universities entrepreneurial activity to include the development of human capital

Is blood always thicker than water? Family firm parents, kinship ties, and the survival of spawns

We theorize that due to their ability to draw upon the distinctive bonding and bridging social capital resources of their family firm parents, family member spawns have longer early survival times than nonfamily member spawns from family firms, which in turn should have longer early survival times than spawns from nonfamily firm parents. We also predict that the survival enhancing effects of family parent bonding and bridging social capital are conditional on the spatial, cognitive and social proximity between the parent and the spawn. Using a population wide sample of 114,837 spawns founded in Sweden between 2000 and 2007, we find that nonfamily member spawns survive longer than spawns from nonfamily firms, and that this survival enhancing effect is contingent on the spatial and social proximity between the spawn and its parent. We also find that spawns founded by family members, on average, do not survive longer than spawns from family firms founded by nonfamily members, and that greater spatial and cognitive distance even hurt the survival of family member spawns. We discuss the contributions of our research to the spawning, family firm, and entrepreneurship literatures.</p

Donne, violenza e diritto: la ragione giuridica come rimedio contro la violenza di genere

La nostra storia è attraversata dalla consapevolezza che una volta riconosciuta la violenza come problema fondamentale della società si può scorporare la stessa violenza dall’intero sistema sociale e incorporarla nel sistema del diritto in modo da realizzare l’ordine sociale. Il diritto è assunto come il fondamentale paradigma del non-violento, il paradigma secondo il quale non la forza ma la giustizia deve essere il principio regolatore delle relazioni intersoggettive. L’intervento del legislatore negli ultimi anni è stato diretto alla tutela della donna e al riconoscimento della sua parità. E’ stata costituita la Commissione di Pari opportunità, è stata prevista la figura del Consigliere di parità, sono state promulgate leggi dirette alla diffusione dell’imprenditoria femminile, nonché alla tutela della maternità e paternità. E quando le affermazioni di principio non sono state più sufficienti si è passato alla previsioni di azioni positive. Tutto ciò dimostra il grande interesse del legislatore verso la posizione della donna e il suo ruolo nella società. Ma la società – in riferimento alla posizione della donna - presenta un crescendo di problematiche che, a mano a mano che vengono risolte ne creano delle altre. Dapprima l’uguaglianza poi l’emancipazione ed oggi la violenza. Questo lavoro si propone di offrire un quadro generale sulla posizione della donna all’interno del sistema giuridico al fine di poter individuare quali strumenti il diritto può utilizzare per impedire la violenza contro le donne e garantire il rispetto dei suoi diritti e della sua personalità. Mi piace richiamare una celebre frase di Cesare Beccaria che ben si adatta a quanto detto: <<Si vedrà che le passioni di un secolo sono la base della morale dei secoli futuri, che le passioni forti, figlie del fanatismo e dell’entusiasmo, indebolite e rose dal tempo, diventano a poco a poco la prudenza del secolo e lo strumento utile in mano del forte e dell’accorto>>