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on Entrepreneurship |
| By: | Alina Sorgner (Friedrich Schiller University Jena, School of Economics and Business Administration) |
| Abstract: | There is a debate in the literature backed by ambiguous empirical evidence whether personality is useful at predicting entrepreneurship behavior. However, little is known about the role of the context in the relationship between personality and entrepreneurship. This paper draws on the well-established psychological theory of vocational behavior, which emphasizes the crucial role of personality for peoples' vocational choices, in order to shed more light on the interplay between personality, occupational environment, and the decision to become self-employed. Empirical findings suggest that personality is associated with both vocational and entrepreneurial choices. An entrepreneurial personality profile is positively related to the choice of Holland's enterprising and artistic occupations, which contributes to above-average self-employment rates in these occupations. Personality also seems to play an important role in entrepreneurial choice, however, in a way which varies substantially across occupations. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship, vocational choice, Big Five, occupational environment |
| JEL: | L26 J24 J44 |
| Date: | 2012–11–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2012-063&r=ent |
| By: | Booth, Alison L. (Australian National University); Katic, Pamela (Australian National University) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we utilise data from a unique new birth‐cohort study to see how the risk preferences of young people are affected by cognitive skills and gender. We find that cognitive ability (measured by the percentile ranking for university entrance at age 18) has no effect on risk preferences measured at age 20. This is in contrast to experimental studies that use IQ measures to proxy cognitive skills. However we do find that gender matters. While young women are significantly more likely than young men to assess themselves as being prepared to take risks, women choose to invest significantly less when they are confronted with a clearly specified investment decision based on hypothetical lottery winnings. This difference between the impact of gender on risk attitudes and the hypothetical lottery investment suggests that impatience and framing affect young women and men differently. |
| Keywords: | cognitive ability, risk preferences, risk attitudes, gender |
| JEL: | D01 D80 J16 J24 |
| Date: | 2012–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6997&r=ent |
| By: | Pasquier-Doumer, Laure |
| Abstract: | This paper aims at highlighting the debate on firm heterogeneity in the informal sector by testing whether entrepreneurial familial background impacts informal businesses outcomes in the West African context. In the USA, a literature aiming at understanding the high intergenerational correlation of the self-employed status shows that children of self-employed have better business performance than children of wage earners. However, it is not obvious that this result could be generalised to developing countries. Using 1-2-3 surveys collected in the commercial capitals of seven West African countries in 2001–02, this paper shows that children of self-employed, who own an informal business, do not have better business outcomes than children of wage earners, except when they choose a familial tradition in the same sector of activity. Thus, in the West African context, having a self-employed father seems not sufficient for the transmission of valuable skills and does not provide any advantage in terms of value added or sales if the activity is different from that of the father. On the other hand, informal entrepreneurs who have chosen a specific enterprise based on familial tradition have a competitive advantage. Their competitive advantage is partly explained by the transmission of enterprise-specific human capital, acquired through experiences in the same type of activity and by the transmission of social capital that guarantees a better clientele and a reputation. |
| Keywords: | informal sector; Entrepreneurship; Intergenerational link; Human capital; secteur informel; entreprenariat; lien intergénérationnel; capital humain; |
| JEL: | L26 J24 J62 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ner:dauphi:urn:hdl:123456789/7080&r=ent |
| By: | Martijn Boermans; Daan Willebrands |
| Abstract: | Financial constraints and risk taking are two well-established determinants of firm performance, however, no research analyzes how these variables are connected in the context of a high risk environment. Using data from microfinance clients in Tanzania, we derive a novel financial constraints measure and incorporate a psychometric risk taking scale. Results confirm the importance of access to finance and risk attitudes for business development. Also, we provide preliminary evidence for an interaction between financial constraints and risk taking. Financial constraints “throw sand in the wheels” and protect risk taking entrepreneurs from the negative impact of risk taking on microenterprise performance. |
| Keywords: | micro-credit; access to finance; risk attitude; entrepreneurship; Africa |
| JEL: | D22 G29 O16 |
| Date: | 2012–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dnb:dnbwpp:358&r=ent |
| By: | Konietzko, Thorsten |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the time allocation of self-employed men and women compared to men and women in paid employment and the impact of house-work on earnings of self-employed individuals using data from two German datasets. Self-employed women spend more time on housework activities and self-employed men spend more time on market work than their paid counterparts. While descriptive statistics and pooled OLS earnings regressions show a negative impact of time spent on housework on earnings, fixed-effects earnings regressions show only a negative impact on monthly earnings of self-employed men. This impact disappears after controlling for potential endogeneity via instrumental variable estimators. -- Auf Grundlage zweier deutscher Datensätze untersucht diese Studie die Zeitallokation von selbständigen Frauen und Männern im Vergleich zu abhängig beschäftigten Frauen und Männern sowie den Einfluss der Hausarbeits-zeit auf die Verdienste der Selbständigen. Im Gegensatz zu abhängig Beschäftigten verwenden selbständige Frauen mehr Zeit für Hausarbeit, während selbständige Männer mehr Zeit für Marktarbeit aufwenden. Sowohl die deskriptiven Analysen als auch gepoolte OLS Einkommensregressionen zeigen einen negativen Einfluss der Hausarbeitszeit auf die Einkommen der Selbständigen auf. Im Gegensatz dazu wird in den Fixed-Effekts-Einkommensschätzungen nur beim Monatslohn selbständiger Männer ein negativer Zusammenhang gefunden. Dieser Effekt verschwindet nach einer Kontrolle auf potentielle Endogenität mittels Instrumentenvariablen. |
| Keywords: | self-employment,time use,earnings,gender pay gap,Germany |
| JEL: | J16 J31 J22 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:faulre:78&r=ent |
| By: | Britta Augsburg; Ralph De Haas; Heike Harmgart; Costas Meghir |
| Abstract: | We use an RCT to analyze the impact of microcredit on poverty reduction, child and teenage labour supply, and education. The study population consists of loan applicants to a major MFI in Bosnia who would have been rejected through regular screening. Access to credit allowed borrowers to start and expand small-scale businesses. Households that already had a business and where the borrower had more education, ran down savings, presumably to complement the loan and achieve the minimum investment amount. However, in less-educated households consumption went down. A key new finding is a substantial increase in the labor supply of children aged 16-19 year old together with a reduction in their school attendance, raising important questions about the unintended intergenerational consequences of relaxing liquidity constraints for self-employment and business creation or expansion. |
| JEL: | D1 D12 D14 G21 H52 H53 J22 J24 O16 |
| Date: | 2012–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18538&r=ent |
| By: | Inklaar, Robert; Koetter, Michael; Noth, Felix |
| Abstract: | We test how bank market power influences technical change and resource allocation of informationally opaque firms. We use a dataset with approximately 700,000 firm-year observations of German small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) to identify the effect of bank market power using the dependence on external finance per industry and the regional demarcation of the German banking market. Market power generally spurs aggregate SME growth. Banks need to realize sufficient margins to generate useful private information. Bank market power spurs both technical change and reallocation of resources, but it reduces SME growth in industries that depend heavily on external finance. -- |
| Keywords: | growth decomposition,reallocation,banking,market power |
| JEL: | E22 G21 O16 O41 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:fsfmwp:197&r=ent |
| By: | André van Stel; Sander Wennekers; Jolanda Hessels; Peter van der Zwan |
| Abstract: | The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) is a research program executed annually with the aim to obtain internationally comparative high quality research data on entrepreneurial activity at the national level. This academic research consortium started as a partnership between the London Business School and Babson College in 1999 and started with 10 participating countries in this same year. Over the years GEM has expanded to comprise 54 countries in 20011. Currently, GEM is the single largest study of entrepreneurial activity in the world. The GEM research program provides a harmonized assessment of the level of national entrepreneurial activity and conditions to which it is subject for all participating countries. The Netherlands has participated in GEM since 2001. Data van de GEM vindt u via de link http://data.ondernemerschap.nl/WebIntegraal/userif.aspx?SelectDataset=32&SelectSubset=114&Country=UK . |
| Date: | 2012–11–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eim:papers:a201211&r=ent |
| By: | Vitalie Bumacov (Chaire Banque Populaire en Microfinance du Groupe ESC Dijon Bourgogne - Commencez à saisir le nom d'un établissement); Olivier Toutain (CEREN - Centre de Recherche sur l'Entreprise - Start entering a institution, university, grande ecole); Arvind Ashta (Chaire Banque Populaire en Microfinance du Groupe ESC Dijon Bourgogne - Commencez à saisir le nom d'un établissement, CEREN - Centre de Recherche sur l'Entreprise - Start entering a institution, university, grande ecole) |
| Abstract: | En France on parle beaucoup de l'accompagnement des micro-emprunteurs sur la durée de remboursement des microcrédits qu'ils reçoivent auprès des institutions de microfinance (IMF). Souvent indissociable du processus de financement, cet accompagnement financier suppose une prise en charge de l'emprunteur par une ou plusieurs personnes considérées comme qualifiées pour apporter une aide personnalisée au meneur du projet financé afin qu'il ne mette pas en danger son patrimoine, augmente ses chances de réussite et conserve sa capacité de remboursement. Cette étude à pour objectif d'analyser ce phénomène qui n'est pas commun aux pratiques de la microfinance observées dans les pays émergents et même dans certains pays développés. En utilisant le concept de facteurs de production, des données qualitatives primaires et secondaires, l'étude cherche à quantifier l'importance de l'accompagnement financier pour les bénéficiaires de microcrédits professionnels en France. |
| Keywords: | micro-emprunteur, microfinance, accompagnement, IMF, facteur de production, pauvreté |
| Date: | 2012–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-00752493&r=ent |