In this paper, I analyse how the survival of new firms is affected by the average ability level in the founding team, the team size, team members' homogeneity with respect to ability, and team members' heterogeneity with respect to education. As a theoretical basis, I apply the O-ring theory...

This paper analyzes how companies of immigrant entrepreneurs in knowledgeintensive industries differ from companies of native entrepreneurs with respect to start-up characteristics, firm survival and innovative performance. I focus on immigrants from the 'recruitment countries' of south and...

Die vorliegende Studie widmet sich der Entwicklung neugegründeter Unternehmen in den ersten vier Jahren. Ziel war es anhand von verschiedenen Erfolgsdimensionen (Überleben am Markt, Deckung des Lebensunterhaltes und Schaffung von Arbeitsplätzen) zu analysieren, wie sich die Unternehmen in der...

Risk attitudes have an impact on not only the decision to become an entrepreneur but also the survival and failure rates of entrepreneurs. Whereas recent research underpins the theoretical proposition of a positive correlation between risk attitudes and the decision to become an entrepreneur,...

We investigate regional differences in the contribution of newly founded businesses to regional employment. This is labeled the direct employment effect of new businesses. The analysis is at the spatial level of West German planning regions for the period 1984-2002. We find rather pronounced...

This paper studies 40 years of evolution in the German laser industry to test the generality of evolutionary patterns observed in the U.S. laser industry. Key characteristics found in the U.S. industry are also present in Germany. There is sustained entry into the industry, and neither a...

We investigate the effects that regional start-up activity has on employment in new and in incumbent businesses. The analysis is performed for West German regions over the 1987-2002 period. It shows that the effects of new businesses on employment in the incumbents are significantly positive and...