The data set COMPENDIA contains harmonized data on the number of business owners and the size of the labour force for 23 OECD countries over the period 1972-2000, as well as the quotient of these two variables which is called the business ownership rate of a country. Business ownership rates...

This report tries to gain insight in the willingness or ambition to grow of a small business owner. The main question of this report is therefore: Which factors influence the ambition to grow a business? To examine the ambition to grow an economic and a psychological perspective is given in this...

This paper applies the dynamic capability framework to the study of new firm growth. Using a longitudinal database of 354 firms over their first ten years, we provide an explanation of new firm growth in terms of new product development, R&D, inter-firm alliancing, and exporting, activities that...

Policy in developed countries is often based on the assumption that higher business ownership rates induce economic value. However, not everyone can be a business owner and many labour market participants would contribute more to economic value creation as an employee than a business owner. The...

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....

This paper empirically explores the distinction between Schumpeterian and Kirznerian opportunities by analyzing survey data of 184 high tech small business entrepreneurs. A multidimensional measure is developed documenting the extent in which entrepreneurial opportunities are either...

Small firms may rely on a variety of network partners, and in various roles, to identify and exploit opportunities for innovation. This paper adds to the literature on innovation networking by developing a typology at the level of innovation objects, rather than at the firm or industry level.  

During the last decades, most developed countries have shown a remarcable increase in entrepreneurship rates. Recent research suggests that this increase is, for a considerable part, caused by an increase in the share of solo self-employed. Nowadays, for example, more than half of all Dutch...

This paper presents the results of a novel international study of intrapreneurship ( i.e., employees developing new business activities for their employer), carried out in eleven countries in the framework of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor. At the individual level, it is found that...

This study focuses on the prediction of sustainable entrepreneurship, that is, behavior which demonstrates a firm’s concern about the natural environment, especially among small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Using a random sample of 382 Dutch SMEs we examine how organizational context...