Pre Entry Motives into Entrepreneurship and Post Entry Entrepreneurial Orientation

post-entry strategy, firm survival, Cox model

Financial Constraints on New Firms:Looking for Regional Disparities

Financial constraints affecting new firms are some of the factors most cited forimpeding entrepreneurial dynamics from flourishing. This article introduces the problem ofregional patterns of financial constraints. The research is conducted with regard to the Frenchregions and the new French firms being tracked at the firm level. It refers to entrepreneurialprojects that are concretized in new firms. General entrepreneurial intentions in the Frenchpopulation that are aborted due to financial constraints are not reported. The point is ofimportance as the firm financing conditions are considered. First, an assessment of theregional banking activity leads to the conclusion of a relatively homogeneous situation, theactivity in the core-region Île-de-France appearing however more contrasted. Second, thefinancial constraints affecting new firms are distinguished according to a four-case typologyof credit rationing. It appears, inter alia, that a majority of firms is not facing credit rationing,but also that a non-negligible share is “self-constrained”. The classification is, third andfinally, differentiated according to the regions. Despite the relatively homogeneous bankingsupply, some differences may still be at work. The explanations are hypothetical at this stage butevidence suggests that the regional dimension should definitely deserve further attention.Financial constraints; Credit rationing; New Firms; Regional Disparities

Does the regional dimension matter as regards finance and entrepreneurship?

This article investigates the interrelationships between finance and entrepreneurship by exploring regional discrepancies in France. The focus is (1) on regional differences in financial relationships, (2) on the way these relations influence financial constraints on new firms and (3) on the complementary/substitutable effects between funds. No path of exclusion is identified. Rather, firms that are self-constraining or suffer from a weak credit rationing are the ones that later on develop intensive relationships with banks. Substitution exists in almost all the French regions. Results suggest the departure point of an original pecking order theory according to the entrepreneurial intensity of regions.financial constraints, credit rationing, financial relationships, new firms, regional development, regional disparities

The Dunhuang chinese sky: a comprehensive study of the oldest known star atlas

This paper presents an analysis of the star atlas included in the medieval Chinese manuscript (Or.8210/S.3326), discovered in 1907 by the archaeologist Aurel Stein at the Silk Road town of Dunhuang and now held in the British Library. Although partially studied by a few Chinese scholars, it has never been fully displayed and discussed in the Western world. This set of sky maps (12 hour angle maps in quasi-cylindrical projection and a circumpolar map in azimuthal projection), displaying the full sky visible from the Northern hemisphere, is up to now the oldest complete preserved star atlas from any civilisation. It is also the first known pictorial representation of the quasi-totality of the Chinese constellations. This paper describes the history of the physical object - a roll of thin paper drawn with ink. We analyse the stellar content of each map (1339 stars, 257 asterisms) and the texts associated with the maps. We establish the precision with which the maps are drawn (1.5 to 4 degrees for the brightest stars) and examine the type of projections used. We conclude that precise mathematical methods were used to produce the atlas. We also discuss the dating of the manuscript and its possible author and confirm the dates 649-684 (early Tang dynasty) as most probable based on available evidence. This is at variance with a prior estimate around +940. Finally we present a brief comparison with later sky maps, both in China and in Europe.Comment: 19 pages, 5 Tables, 8 Figure

Entrepreneurial motives and performance:Why might better educated entrepreneurs be less successful?

In a sample of newly created French firms, the impact of an entrepreneurís education on the firm's survival varies widely depending on his previous labor market situation. While it is strongly positive for the overall population, it is much weaker or insignificant for entrepreneurs who were previously unemployed or poorly matched. Our theoretical entrepreneurship model shows that these differences may be attributed to differences in unobserved human capital for better educated entrepreneurs across different initial states in the labor market. Empirical results are consistent with the theory if employers have limited information about potential entrepreneurs'human capital

A journey into the entrepreneurial society

Entrepreneurship is the engine of economic development, which in turn impacts upon the challenges facing future entrepreneurs. This timely book explores institutional, behavioural and policy issues of primary importance to understanding the entrepreneurial society. Topics covered include entrepreneurship in relation to formal and informal institutions; entrepreneurial choice, orientation and success; entrepreneurial behaviours; entrepreneurial finance, growth and economic crises; and entrepreneurship, social dimensions and outcomes

Entrepreneurship and Economic Development

Cet article examine les relations entre l’entrepreneuriat et le développement économique. Le modèle économique actuel donne à l’entrepreneuriat une importance cruciale dans le développement économique des années récentes. A ce titre le rôle, la culture, l’éducation, la volonté de créer des entreprises de croissance sont déterminants pour le développement économique de même qu’un certain nombre de caractéristiques institutionnelles dont le fonctionnement du marché du travail.Entrepreneur, innovation, développement économique, marché du travail, culture entrepreneuriale

Inferring the unobserved human capital of entrepreneurs

The goal of this paper is to study the role of unobserved human capital in entrepreneurial choice and its impact on the survival of newly created firms. Our starting point is that, when starting a new business, an entrepreneur’s labor market situation (e.g. employed or not) reflects how his human capital may be valuated through salaried labor. This in turn affects the entrepreneurial decision so that, an entrepreneur’s human capital should be correlated with the state at which he decided to start a new firm. We illustrate this point with descriptive statistics computed from a survey of French startups. These statistics show that the impact of education on the new firm’s survival is most pronounced for firms created by individuals salaried in their preferred branch of activity while it is rather limited if the entrepreneur was in the wrong branch or newly unemployed. In this paper we argue, both theoretically and empirically, that these results may be explained by some unobserved heterogeneity in the entrepreneur’s human capital that is correlated both with the initial labor market situation and with some observable measures of human capital such as education or experience. We first present a simple model of entrepreneurial choice that provides predictions about an entrepreneur’s actual human capital as a function of human capital observed by the econometrician as well as the individual’s state in the labor market when the firm was created. The model allows for some information asymmetry on the labor market as well as other sources of inefficiencies such as incentive problems due to moral hazard. It also allows in a simple way for some dynamic considerations on the part of the entrepreneur regarding potential depreciation of his human capital. We argue that the data may be best explained by a model where employer’s information on employee’s human capital is sufficiently poor and where there is a strong concern about human capital depreciation for those with a high level of observed human capital. We then run some duration analysis on our data on new firms’ survival by estimating a proportional hazard Cox model with partial maximum likelihood. The estimation results are coherent with the descriptive statistics on the impact of education on survival for different initial states of the entrepreneur. This econometric analysis will be completed with additional regressions that allow for correcting for unobserved heterogeneity in order to evaluate its magnitude and nature. We have done some preliminary work where unobserved heterogeneity is modelled through random effects (frailties) for different subgroups of individuals according to education level and experience that have a gamma distribution. Our preliminary results show that there is significant unobserved heterogeneity but the estimates of the frailties are consistent with the results obtained by running a standard Cox estimation.Entrepreneurship, Labor Market, Human Capital Valuation, Information Asymmetries, Duration of the New Firm