Entrepreneurial exit, ability and engagement across countries in different stages of development

Entrepreneurial ability has been suggested to be an important predictor of entrepreneurial engagement. In this paper we investigate the extent to which different types of recent entrepreneurial exit experiences foster entrepreneurial ability and subsequent entrepreneurial engagement. We discriminate between several exit modes and distinguish the following engagement levels: potential, intentional, nascent, young and established entrepreneurship. We use individual-level data for 67 countries that participated in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor during 2007, 2008 and 2009. Our findings indeed show that entrepreneurial exit directly fosters entrepreneurial engagement as well as indirectly through enhanced entrepreneurial ability. We also find dat positive as well as negative exit experiences foster subsequent entrepreneurial engagement. In addition, the impacts of exit on ability and exit on engagement increase with the stage of development of a country.

Entrepreneurial exit in real and imagined markets

Entrepreneurs exit their business due to selection pressures experienced in the market place, i.e. business failure. Next to this well known ex-post decision to exit, entrepreneurs select exantewhether they are willing to pursue an entrepreneurial career at all, or to give up theseentrepreneurial intentions. Hardly anything is known about the latter selection process in imagined markets that precedes the variety creation and selection process in real markets. This paper explores and explains the prevalence of these two selection processes using survey data on 20,000 individuals in 27 European countries and the US in 2007. We distinguish business failures from exit by sell-off. Results indicate that individuals in the US are less likely to exit imagined markets, and are more likely to have exited the real market (especially by selling their business) than Europeans. Individuals in a Corporatist welfare state regime have relatively high chances to exit imagined markets. Business owners in urban environments are more likely to fail, while individuals with a high risk tolerance, a high education and self-employed parents are less likely to exit in imagined as well as in real markets (via business failure). This study shows that exit in real and in imagined markets is differently affected by competition and institutions. These selection environments have differential effects on entrepreneurial aspirations and actions of individuals, and provide evidence for the dissimilar nature of exit in real and exit in imagined markets.

Factors Influencing the Entrepreneurial Engagement of Opportunity and Necessity Entrepreneurs

This paper investigates determinants of engagement in various stages of the entrepreneurial process while considering an individual's start-up motivation using 2007 survey data for 27 European countries and the US. Next to opportunity and necessity start-up motivations, we take into account individuals driven by a combination of both motivations. We observe that opportunity- and necessitydriven entrepreneurs as well as those with mixed start-up motivations have different profiles. Furthermore, they differ concerning the factors that inspire or hinder them to engage in the entrepreneurial process more fully ('to climb the entrepreneurial ladder'). For example, entrepreneurship-specific education, selfemployed parents, risk tolerance, perception of lack of financial support, and living in a metropolitan area are important variables in determining entrepreneurial engagement and failure for opportunity-driven individuals, but they are not (or less) important for necessity-driven individuals.

Entrepreneurial exit and entrepreneurial engagement

Arguing that entrepreneurial exit is an indicator of accumulated entrepreneurial human capital (like ability and experience) we investigate whether such an exit in the recent past positively relates to posterior engagement in various stages of the entrepreneurial process (i.e. potential, intentional, nascent, young, and established entrepreneurship). We use individual-level data for 24 countries that participated in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor during the years 2004, 2005 and 2006 (some 350,000 observations). Our findings indeed show that recent exit experience decreases the probability of undertaking no entrepreneurial activity, and that it increases the probabilities of being a potential or an intentional entrepreneur. We also investigate under what conditions recent exit increases engagement in entrepreneurial activities. Most important factors that influence entrepreneurial (re-)engagement are gender, fear of failure and knowing an entrepreneur, while educational attainment does not seem to be relevant. Also, some interesting country differences are found. �

Modelling latent and actual entrepreneurship

The determinants of latent (i.e., desired) and actual entrepreneurship are analysed in two ways with nearly 8,000 observations from the 2004 “Flash Eurobarometer survey on Entrepreneurship” covering the 25 European Union member states and the United States. Both methods lead to new and extensive insights in the interrelation of both concepts. First, latent and actual entrepreneurship are investigated simultaneously in a bivariate probit setting. The perception of lack of financial support, the perception of administrative complexities, and the perception of lack of sufficient information do not have significant direct impacts on latent entrepreneurship. This points at indirect effects of these variables on latent entrepreneurship via actual entrepreneurship. Second, four groups of individuals are distinguished, based on their involvement in both measures of entrepreneurship. The analysis enables us for example to discuss the determinants of ‘necessity entrepreneurship’. Results show that the perception of administrative complexities is a significant obstacle in setting up a business, irrespective of the declared preference for self-employment, while the perception of financial constraints does not have a significant influence. Also, necessity entrepreneurs are characterized by a relatively low education level compared to those who are neither latent nor actual entrepreneurs. Each model has its own merits. The multinomial model enables researchers to perform group-wise analyses, while the bivariate probit model makes is possible to take into account the importance of latent entrepreneurship without explicitly including latent entrepreneurship in the set of explanatory variables.

COVID-19 vaccination:lower intention and coverage among entrepreneurs compared to employees

Purpose: Lockdowns and the forced closure of certain industries during the COVID-19 pandemic severely impacted workers, particularly entrepreneurs, who were financially and emotionally involved in their businesses. Two studies have shown that entrepreneurs have a lower willingness to get vaccinated against COVID-19 than employees. In this study, the authors try to replicate the vaccination gap between the two groups. Second, the authors study whether the difference persists when controlling for demographics, vaccination attitudes and the COVID-19 context, including the financial impact of the pandemic, its effect on the wellbeing of workers, and government attitudes. Third, the authors study whether there are differences in how the context of the pandemic relates to vaccination willingness for entrepreneurs and employees. Design/methodology/approach: The authors conduct regression analyses using three large datasets. The authors study vaccination status (February 2022) in a 27-country Eurobarometer sample, vaccination intention (December 2020) in a Dutch sample from the LISS panel and vaccination status (July 2021) in a sample from the Understanding America Study (UAS). Findings: All datasets confirm that entrepreneurs have lower vaccination intention and coverage than employees. Even when controlling for the variables described in the LISS and UAS datasets, this negative difference remains. The study results also indicate that demographics, especially vaccination attitudes, are much more important than contextual influences in the decision to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Originality/value: The authors are the first to dive further into the vaccination differences between entrepreneurs and employees. They advise further research into the drivers of this gap, specifically relating to the role of personality and social normative influences.</p

The Entrepreneurial Process: An International Analysis of Entry and Exit

This thesis deals with the entrepreneurial process from an international perspective. The first part explores which people decide to enter entrepreneurship. A distinction is made between two modes of entrepreneurial entry: taking over an existing firm

The entrepreneurial ladder and its determinants

We test a new model where the entrepreneurial decision is described as a process of successive engagement levels, i.e., as an entrepreneurial ladder. Five levels are distinguished using nearly 12,000 observations from the 2004 'Flash Eurobarometer survey on Entrepreneurship' covering the 25 European Union member states and the United States. The most surprising of the many results is that perception of lack of financial support is no obstacle for moving to a higher entrepreneurial engagement level whereas perceived administrative complexity is a significant obstacle. We also show that the effect of age on the probability of moving forward in the entrepreneurial process becomes negative after a certain age implying that if entrepreneurial engagements are not taken early enough in life they may well never be taken.

The Entrepreneurial Ladder and its Determinants

We test a new model where the entrepreneurial decision is described as a process of successive engagement levels, i.e., as an entrepreneurial ladder. Five levels are distinguished using nearly 12,000 observations from the 2004 “Flash Eurobarometer survey on Entrepreneurship” covering the 25 European Union member states and the United States. The most surprising of the many results is that perception of lack of financial support is no obstacle for moving to a higher entrepreneurial engagement level whereas perceived administrative complexity is a significant obstacle. We also show that the effect of age on the probability of moving forward in the entrepreneurial process becomes negative after a certain age implying that if entrepreneurial engagements are not taken early enough in life they may well never be taken

The Stature of the Self-employed and its Premium

__Abstract__ Taller individuals typically have occupations with higher social status and higher earning