This paper explores the determinants of start-up size by focusing on a cohort of 6247 businesses that started trading in 2004, using a unique dataset on customer records at Barclays Bank. In our theoretical model, post-entry growth is treated as a random walk, and start-up size is positively...

Does our ability to predict the performance of new ventures improve in the years after start-up? We investigate the growth and survival of 6247 new ventures that are tracked using the customer records at Barclays Bank. We put forward Gambler's Ruin as a simple theory for understanding new...

This paper investigates whether entrepreneurship constitutes a route out of deprivation for those living in deprived areas. Our measure of income/wealth is based on analysis of improvements in an individual's residential address. Our data consist of information on over 800,000 individuals, and...

This paper explores the determinants of start-up size by focusing on a cohort of 6,247 businesses that started trading in 2004, using a unique dataset on customer records at Barclays Bank. Quantile regressions show that prior business experience is significantly related with start-up size, as...

This paper investigates whether new venture performance becomes easier to predict as the venture ages: does the fog lift? To address this question we primarily draw upon a theoretical framework, initially formulated in a managerial context by Levinthal (1991) that sees new venture sales as a...

The authors assess empirically the impact on firm performance of a state-subsidised training-loan scheme for small businesses (the Small Firms Training Loan Scheme). To achieve this assessment, a longitudinal sample of firms that received loans from the leading lender under the scheme, Barclays...

This paper links new firm survival with growth, with a focus on the patterns in firms' growth paths. We theorise a Gambler's Ruin framework by arguing that new rm performance is best modelled as a random walk process, but that survival is nonrandom and depends primarily on the stock of...