412 research outputs found
Climbing the Entrepreneurial Ladder: The Role of Gender
We investigate whether women and men differ with respect to the steps they take in the entrepreneurial process, distinguishing between five successive steps described by the following positions: (1) "never thought about it"; (2) "thinking about starting up a business"; (3) "taking steps to start a business"; (4) "running a business for less than three years"; (5) "running a business for more than three years". This paper provides insights into the manner in which women and men climb the entrepreneurial ladder and the factors that influence their position on the ladder. We use data from the 2006 "Flash Eurobarometer survey on Entrepreneurship" consisting of more than 10,000 observations for 25 member states of the European Union, Norway, Iceland and the United States. Findings suggest that for men it is easier to climb the ladder and that this may be attributed partly to their higher tolerance of risk.entrepreneurship;determinants;gender;ordered multinomial logit;nascent entrepreneurship
Latent and actual entrepreneurship in Europe and the US: some recent developments
This paper uses 2004 survey data from the 15
old EU member states and the US to explain country differences in latent
and actual entrepreneurship. Other than demographic variables such as
gender, age and education, the set of covariates includes the perception
by respondents of administrative complexities, of availability of
financial support and of risk tolerance as well as country-specific
effects. A comparison is made with results using a similar survey in 2000.
While a majority of the surveyed population identifies lack of financial
support as an obstacle to starting a new business, the role of this
variable in both latent and actual entrepreneurship appears to be even
more counterintuitive in 2004 than in 2000: it has no impact on actual
entrepreneurship and is positively related to latent entrepreneurship.
Administrative complexities, also perceived as an obstacle by a large
majority of the population, have the expected negative impact both for
latent and actual entrepreneurship in both years. Country-specific effects
are important both for latent and actual entrepreneurship and the
comparison of 2000 and 2004 results suggests that, once all other factors
are controlled for, an improvement in actual entrepreneurship in the EU
relative to the US has taken place in the last four years. However, in
terms of unweighted averages actual entrepreneurship remained about the
same. Latent entrepreneurship dropped while this drop seems to have
occurred evenly in the US and the EU member states
Determinants of Entrepreneurial Engagement Levels in Europe and the US
Determinants from different streams of literature and spanning different disciplines are used to explain entrepreneurial decisions. A multinomial logit model and survey data from the old 15 EU member states, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and the US are used to establish the effect of demographic and other variables on various entrepreneurial engagement levels. These engagement levels range from ânever thought about starting a businessâ to âthinking about itâ, âtaking steps for starting upâ, âhaving a young businessâ, âhaving an older businessâ and âno longer being an entrepreneurâ. Data of two Entrepreneurship Flash Eurobarometer surveys (2002 and 2003) containing over 20,000 observations are used. Other than demographic variables, the set of explanatory variables used includes the perception by respondents of ad-ministrative complexities, of availability of financial support and of risk tolerance, the respondentsâ prefer-ence for self-employment and country specific effects. The most striking result is that the perception of lack of financial support has no discriminative effect across the various levels of entrepreneurial engagement
Entrepreneurship in the old en new Europe
Developing a dynamic SME sector is essential for
countries transforming their centrally planned economy into a market
oriented one. New firm formation is the major driver of this transition.
Obviously, entrepreneurial energy is a necessary condition for new firm
formation. This paper uses 2004 survey data from the 25 EU member states
and the US to explain country differences in entrepreneurial energy. This
energy is captured as latent and actual entrepreneurship. Latent
entrepreneurship is measured by the probability of a declared preference
for self-employment over employment. Next to demographic variables such as
gender, age, education level and whether parents are self-employed, the
set of explanatory variables used includes country specific effects,
measures of risk tolerance, internal and external locus of control and
four perceptions of obstacles . The obstacle variables include the
perception by respondents of administrative complexities, of availability
of financial support, of accessibility of information for start-up and
whether the current economic climate is favorable. Specific attention is
devoted to differences between the eight former communist member states
and the 17 other EU member states. The most striking result is the higher
influence of risk tolerance in shaping both latent and actual
entrepreneurship in transition economies relative to market economies
Determinants Of Entrepreneurship In Europe
This paper uses an Eclectic Framework explaining entrepreneurship incorporating different streams of literature and spanning different disciplines. The Eclectic Framework integrates factors shaping the demand for entrepreneurship on the one hand, with those influencing the supply of entrepreneurs on the other hand. It also creates insight into the role of public policy identifying the channels through which the demand or the supply of entrepreneurship can be shifted. In its empirical part the present paper estimates a multinomial logit using survey data from the 15 EU member states, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and the US to establish the effect of demographic and other variables on various entrepreneurial engagement levels. Data of two Entrepreneurship Flash Eurobarometer surveys (2003 and 2004) containing over 20,000 observations are used. Other than demographic variables, the set of explanatory variables used includes the perception by respondents of administrative complexities, of availability of financial support, a rough measure of risk tolerance, the respondentsâ preference for self-employment and country specific effects. The most striking result is that the perception of lack of financial support has no discriminative effect across the various levels of entrepreneurial engagement
Entrepreneurial Engagement Levels in the European Union
A multinomial logit model and survey data from the 25 EU member states and the US are
used to establish the effect of demographic and other variables on various entrepreneurial
engagement levels. These engagement levels range from ânever thought about starting a businessâ
to âthinking about itâ, âtaking steps for starting upâ, âhaving a young businessâ, âhaving an older
businessâ and âno longer being an entrepreneurâ. Data of the 2004 Entrepreneurship Flash
Eurobarometer survey containing over 13,500 observations is used. Other than demographic
variables such as gender, age, education level and whether parents are self-employed, the set of
explanatory variables used includes country specific effects, measures of risk tolerance, internal and
external locus of control and four perceptions of âobstaclesâ. The âobstacleâ variables include the
perception by respondents of administrative complexities, of availability of financial support, of
accessibility of information for start-up and whether the current economic climate is favorable.
Among the four perception variables only administrative complexities displays an unambiguous
obstacle profile in that its presence has a significant negative impact on higher entrepreneurial
engagement levels. Country effects suggest a clear underperformance of Europe relative to the US
in less mature entrepreneurial phases
Determinants of self-employment preference and realization among women and men in Europe and the United States
Female
self-employment rates are consistently lower than those of men. This
untapped female potential has drawn the attention of policy makers. In the
present paper the determinants of selfemployment rates of both men and
women are investigated in the context of a two-equation model explaining
both actual self-employment and the preference for self-employment. A
systematic distinction is made between different ways in which gender can
exert influence on (preference for) self-employment, including moderation,
mediation and direct effects. Using Flash Eurobarometer data of about
8,000 individuals from 29 countries (including the 15 old EU member
states, 10 new EU member states and the United States) probit equations
are estimated explaining the (preference for) self-employment. Next to
gender, explanatory variables include age, education, social capital, risk
attitude, locus of control and perceptions of the entrepreneurial
environment. Findings show that at least part of the explanation of the
lower female self-employment rate is caused by a lower preference for
women to become self-employed. We do not find evidence for a moderating
effect of gender on the relationship between self-employment and the
preference for self-employment, indicating that other things equal
women and men who have a preference to become self-employed do not differ
with respect to the impact of this preference on its materialization.
Entrepreneurship and its determinants in a cross-country setting
Explaining Preferences and Actual Involvement in Self-Employment: New Insights into the Role of Gender
This paper investigates why womenâs self-employment rates are consistently lower than those of men. It has three focal points. It discriminates between the preference for self-employment and actual involvement in self-employment using a two (probit) equation model. It makes a systematic distinction between different ways in which gender influences the preference for and actual involvement in self-employment (mediation and moderation). It includes perceived ability as a potential driver of self-employment next to risk attitude, self-employed parents and other socio-demographic drivers. A representative data set of more than 8,000 individuals from 29 countries (25 EU member states, US, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) is used (the 2004 Flash Eurobarometer survey). The findings show that womenâs lower preference for becoming self-employed plays an important role in explaining their lower involvement in self-employment and that a gender effect remains that may point at gender-based obstacles to entrepreneurship
Explaining engagement levels of opportunity and necessity entrepreneurs
This paper investigates
differences between opportunity and necessity entrepreneurs in terms of
socio-demographics, attitudes and perception of obstacles . We use the
2004 Flash Eurobarometer Survey data. Explanatory variables include
gender, age, education level and self-employed parents, risk tolerance,
locus of control, perceptions of four obstacles and country effects. The
obstacle variables include the perception of availibility of financial
support; administrative complexity; of access to information on new
venture creation and an unfavorable economic climate. Using probit
equations we investigate differences in the preference for self-employment
of opportunity and necessity entrepreneurs. A probit equation is estimated
relating the explanatory variables to opportunity versus necessity
entrepreneurship. Moreover, differences in the entrepreneurial engagement
of opportunity and necessity entrepreneurs are investigated on the basis
of a (ordered) multinomial logit model. Findings indicate that opportunity
entrepreneurs have a higher preference for self-employment because of
family encouragement. Also, opportunity entrepreneurs are found to
perceive of administrative complexity and an unfavorable economic climate,
negatively influencing their entrepreneurial involvement, while this is
not the case for necessity entrepreneurs
Living bacteria rheology: population growth, aggregation patterns and cooperative behaviour under different shear flows
The activity of growing living bacteria was investigated using real-time and
in situ rheology -- in stationary and oscillatory shear. Two different strains
of the human pathogen Staphylococcus aureus -- strain COL and its isogenic cell
wall autolysis mutant -- were considered in this work. For low bacteria
density, strain COL forms small clusters, while the mutant, presenting
deficient cell separation, forms irregular larger aggregates. In the early
stages of growth, when subjected to a stationary shear, the viscosity of both
strains increases with the population of cells. As the bacteria reach the
exponential phase of growth, the viscosity of the two strains follow different
and rich behaviours, with no counterpart in the optical density or in the
population's colony forming units measurements. While the viscosity of strain
COL keeps increasing during the exponential phase and returns close to its
initial value for the late phase of growth, where the population stabilizes,
the viscosity of the mutant strain decreases steeply, still in the exponential
phase, remains constant for some time and increases again, reaching a constant
plateau at a maximum value for the late phase of growth. These complex
viscoelastic behaviours, which were observed to be shear stress dependent, are
a consequence of two coupled effects: the cell density continuous increase and
its changing interacting properties. The viscous and elastic moduli of strain
COL, obtained with oscillatory shear, exhibit power-law behaviours whose
exponent are dependent on the bacteria growth stage. The viscous and elastic
moduli of the mutant have complex behaviours, emerging from the different
relaxation times that are associated with the large molecules of the medium and
the self-organized structures of bacteria. These behaviours reflect
nevertheless the bacteria growth stage.Comment: 9 pages, 10 figure
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