This article studies the role of social capital in the occupational choice process involving whether to become self-employed or not. Although the decision to become self-employed has itself been analyzed frequently, social capital as an important explanatory variable has often been neglected. We...

Die Nutzung von sozialen Netzwerken wie Facebook ist auf dem Vormarsch. Aber kann Facebook für Unternehmen ein entscheidendes Marketing- und Networking-Tool sein, das den Unternehmenserfolg unterstützt? Unser Auswertungen von 1.971 Firmen zeigen, dass die Aktivität auf Facebook durch den...

This paper empirically analyzes whether the character-based approach, which is based on the personality structure and the human capital of business founders, allows prediction of entrepreneurial success. A unique data set is used consisting of 414 previously unemployed persons whose personal...

We extend Lazear's theory of skills variety and entrepreneurship in three directions. First, we provide a theoretical framework linking new business creation with an entrepreneur's skill variety. Second, in this model we allow for both generalists and specialists to possess skill variety. Third,...

We extend Lazear's theory of skills variety and entrepreneurship in three directions. First, we provide a theoretical framework linking new business creation with an entrepreneur's skill variety. Second, in this model we allow for both generalists and specialists to possess skill variety. Third,...

In this paper, we evaluate the success of publicly supported business start-ups by comparing the outcomes of various support measures. Our question is: do business starter get what they need? Since we do not know the needs of the founders we analyse (1) who received which kind of support...

Does heterogeneity in the educational backgrounds of the founders matter for firm success? Are team foundations more successful than single entrepreneurs? These questions are analysed using data on academic spinoffs in Germany. Firm success is measured by employment growth. I find that team...