This paper examines how the ethnic composition of SMEs’ business teams, also in conjunction with their strategic behaviour (including digitalisation, innovation and exporting), affect their employment growth. The study conceptualises different forms and aspects of social capital to develop the theoretical framework and hypotheses. We utilise the UK Office for National Statistics’ Longitudinal Small

Credit supply to small businesses may ease financial frictions, helping them grow faster and re-optimize the factor inputs for production, particularly when lumpy and/or long-term investment is required. We study how government loan programs address these two issues by combining the loan-level data with firms’ financial statements. We find that, with additional credit supplied by government, (i) small

Over the last two decades, there has been a significant surge in the self-employment rate among Hispanics, especially among Hispanic immigrants. However, the reasons behind this increase remain underexplored. This paper addresses this gap by examining the role of undocumented immigrants, a substantial part of the Hispanic immigrant population, by discerning immigrants’ legal status in the Current Population

Sustainability practices have a positive effect on the financial performance of SMEs. We extract ESG-related information for a sample of Spanish SMEs over the period 2012–2022 using tools provided by the Internet Archive to estimate a staggered difference-in-differences model of how the release of new ESG-related information impacts the financial performance of SMEs. ESG-related information can be

This paper extends discussion of parental influence on adolescent’s occupational intentions by including parents’ socioeconomic status and by arguing that entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) as instrumental to both entrepreneurial intention and employment intention. The adolescents’ social milieu is proxied by their parents’ occupational type and formal education and income levels, which adds their

This paper examines how pro-market reforms affect entrepreneurial innovation through the lens of the dynamic institution-based view of the firm. We propose that the speed at which changes occur has a positive influence on entrepreneurial innovation. Additionally, we hypothesize that, in highly uncertain environments, entrepreneurs with higher levels of entrepreneurial self-efficacy and those who have

This paper evaluates the effects of the More Productive Brazil Program (BMP) which provided subsidized on-site management consultancies about lean manufacturing techniques to 3000 establishments between 2016 and 2018. The BMP was restricted to four manufacturing sectors but included large, medium, and small-sized establishments. We apply two-way fixed effects regressions and event study specifications

Professors Robert A. Baron and Michael Frese are the joint recipients of the 2024 Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research. Their research contributions have helped establish the disciplinary foundation necessary to explore entrepreneurship from theoretical and applied psychological perspectives. From a theoretical psychological perspective, Professor Baron has repeatedly introduced a disciplinary

What sets apart entrepreneurs who continuously start new businesses from those who stick with their first venture? This paper delves into the characteristics that distinguish habitual founders from one-time founders. Analyzing a dataset of over 5000 individuals, we combine the concepts of cognitive entrenchment and human capital theory to uncover the general and specific traits that increase the likelihood

This study examines how rural conditions affect the establishment and performance of new circular economy (CE) companies—those that reduce, reuse, recycle, and recover materials in their processes—focusing on their longevity, financial performance, and distribution of economic value to stakeholders. We hypothesize that while rural conditions generally lead to fewer business establishments, the liability

Why do some entrepreneurial ecosystems successfully adjust amid adversity while others languish? By integrating prospect theory into the entrepreneurial ecosystem literature and using a quasi-natural experimental design with a difference-in-difference-in-differences model, our theory and findings reveal that earthquakes reduce entrepreneurship in regions with high household savings, but increase entrepreneurship

This study explores the impact of initial debt financing on the survival of start-up firms by identifying three types of exit routes: bankruptcy, voluntary liquidation, and merger. Using a discrete-time duration model for Japanese start-up firms, we examine how debt financing affects the time from founding to exit. We find that firms that initially rely on debt financing from outside creditors are

In recent decades, though the number of female entrepreneurs has grown, a gender gap remains. Self-confidence plays a pivotal role in understanding these differences. We examine gender and target margins in a vast dataset spanning Latin America, the Caribbean, and Sub-Saharan Africa. We use linear and interval regression analysis to estimate the relationship between gender and setting target margins

Enterprise policy, which seeks to stimulate start-ups and support small businesses, attracts significant investment from government and shapes the context for entrepreneurs. Researchers have begun to study the processes underlying the formulation of enterprise policy. However, accounts of how competing interests seek to influence enterprise policymaking processes remain rare. Utilising a distinctive

Communication between different fields in universities is often hindered by the “multi-tower” problem: each focuses on its own questions and issues and tends to ignore work in other, even closely related ones. This occurs in part, because each field has its own terminology theories, journals, and conferences and because university policies claiming ownership of researchers’ findings restrict them from

Existing research establishes that minority borrowers, particularly Black small business owners, faced significant challenges in accessing funds from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), especially in its early stages. We find that institutional and racial disparities persist during the PPP loan forgiveness stage. Controlling for various loan- and borrower-level characteristics, we demonstrate that

We investigate gender-specific local biases among investors in equity crowdfunding. Based on data from a major German crowdfunding platform, we find that domestic investors favour ventures that are geographically closer to their own place of residence. This bias is particularly evident among female investors, although it is partially offset by gender homophily, whereby female investors favour companies

Most scholarly work has focused on the positive effects of digitalisation in Sub-Saharan Africa without accounting for the associated risks and mitigation measures at the firm level. Using the 2016 Enterprise ICT Survey of Kenya which provides a rich source of information on the use of ICT among firms, we examine the effect of cybersecurity breach on labour productivity and show how this effect is

Over the past fifteen years, the startup accelerator sector has emerged as a vital component in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, offering structured support to novice entrepreneurs. This study explores the impact of mentorship within accelerators, shedding light on the critical role mentors play in the success of early-stage entrepreneurs. Utilizing comprehensive data from 779 graduates of Israeli accelerators