IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envirc/v36y2018i1p3-27.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Take-up and variation of advice for new firm founders in different local contexts

Author

Listed:
  • Kevin Mole
  • Joan-Lluís Capelleras

Abstract

Although business advice has been linked to entrepreneurial outcomes, it is subject to information asymmetries and market failure. We argue that the knowledge concerning from whom to take advice before starting a new firm is more easily accessed in areas with high start-up rates which therefore ameliorates market failure. The study is based on surveys of 599 new firm founders in England and 381 new firm founders in Catalonia. A series of probit and heteroskedastic probit models are employed to investigate not only the probability of taking advice but also the variance in that probability, which reflects uncertainty. Supporting our view, the findings show that the taking of advice in the places with higher start-up rates exhibit less variation compared to other localities. We also find differing effects of place on the take up and variation of private sector and public sector advice. Implications from the findings are discussed

Suggested Citation

  • Kevin Mole & Joan-Lluís Capelleras, 2018. "Take-up and variation of advice for new firm founders in different local contexts," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 36(1), pages 3-27, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envirc:v:36:y:2018:i:1:p:3-27
    DOI: 10.1177/2399654417691514
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2399654417691514
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/2399654417691514?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ron Boschma & Koen Frenken, 2011. "The emerging empirics of evolutionary economic geography," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 11(2), pages 295-307, March.
    2. Robert J. Bennett & Paul J. A. Robson, 2004. "The role of trust and contract in the supply of business advice," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 28(4), pages 471-488, July.
    3. R. H. Coase, 2013. "The Problem of Social Cost," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 56(4), pages 837-877.
    4. Teemu Kautonen & Roxanne Zolin & Andreas Kuckertz & Anmari Viljamaa, 2010. "Ties that blind? How strong ties affect small business owner-managers’ perceived trustworthiness of their advisors," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(2), pages 189-209, March.
    5. Georgios Fotopoulos, 2014. "On the spatial stickiness of UK new firm formation rates," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 14(3), pages 651-679.
    6. Norin Arshed & Sara Carter & Colin Mason, 2014. "The ineffectiveness of entrepreneurship policy: is policy formulation to blame?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 43(3), pages 639-659, October.
    7. Paul J A Robson & Sarah L Jack & Mark S Freel, 2008. "Gender and the Use of Business Advice: Evidence from Firms in the Scottish Service Sector," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 26(2), pages 292-314, April.
    8. Minniti, Maria, 2005. "Entrepreneurship and network externalities," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 57(1), pages 1-27, May.
    9. Kevin F Mole & George Bramley, 2006. "Making Policy Choices in Nonfinancial Business Support: An International Comparison," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 24(6), pages 885-908, December.
    10. Dan Hjalmarsson & Anders W. Johansson, 2003. "Public advisory services - theory and practice," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(1), pages 83-98, January.
    11. Johan Lambrecht & Fabrice Pirnay, 2005. "An evaluation of public support measures for private external consultancies to SMEs in the Walloon Region of Belgium," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(2), pages 89-108, March.
    12. Bengt Johannisson & Marcela Ramírez-Pasillas & Gösta Karlsson, 2002. "The institutional embeddedness of local inter-firm networks: a leverage for business creation," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(4), pages 297-315, October.
    13. Francis J. Greene & Kevin F. Mole & David J. Storey, 2008. "Three Decades of Enterprise Culture," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-0-230-28801-0, December.
    14. Mole, Kevin F. & Mole, Miranda, 2010. "Entrepreneurship as the structuration of individual and opportunity: A response using a critical realist perspective: Comment on Sarason, Dean and Dillard," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 230-237, March.
    15. Jose Miguel Giner & Maria Jesus Santa María, 2002. "‘Territorial systems of small firms in Spain: an analysis of productive and organizational characteristics in industrial districts’," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(3), pages 211-228, July.
    16. James O. Fiet, 2007. "A Prescriptive Analysis of Search and Discovery," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(4), pages 592-611, June.
    17. Chrisman, James J. & McMullan, Ed & Hall, Jeremy, 2005. "The influence of guided preparation on the long-term performance of new ventures," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 20(6), pages 769-791, November.
    18. Timothy Bates, 1995. "Why do Minority Business Development Programs Generate so Little Minority Business Development?," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 9(1), pages 3-14, February.
    19. Albena Pergelova & Fernando Angulo-Ruiz, 2014. "The impact of government financial support on the performance of new firms: the role of competitive advantage as an intermediate outcome," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(9-10), pages 663-705, December.
    20. Jonathan M Scott & David Irwin, 2009. "Discouraged Advisees? The Influence of Gender, Ethnicity, and Education in the Use of Advice and Finance by UK SMEs," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 27(2), pages 230-245, April.
    21. George A. Akerlof, 1970. "The Market for "Lemons": Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 84(3), pages 488-500.
    22. Carlos Vivas & Andrés Barge-Gil, 2015. "Impact On Firms Of The Use Of Knowledge External Sources: A Systematic Review Of The Literature," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(5), pages 943-964, December.
    23. Monder Ram & David Smallbone, 2003. "Policies to support ethnic minority enterprise: the English experience," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(2), pages 151-166, January.
    24. Colin Wren, 2002. "Evaluating the effect of soft business support upon small firm performance," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 54(2), pages 334-365, April.
    25. Deniz Ucbasaran & Mike Wright & Paul Westhead, 2003. "A longitudinal study of habitual entrepreneurs: starters and acquirers," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(3), pages 207-228, July.
    26. Robson, Paul J A & Bennett, Robert J, 2000. "SME Growth: The Relationship with Business Advice and External Collaboration," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 193-208.
    27. David B. Audretsch & Max Keilbach, 2007. "The Theory of Knowledge Spillover Entrepreneurship," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(7), pages 1242-1254, November.
    28. Gavin Cassar, 2007. "Money, money, money? A longitudinal investigation of entrepreneur career reasons, growth preferences and achieved growth," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(1), pages 89-107, January.
    29. Robert Bennett, 2008. "SME Policy Support in Britain since the 1990s: What have We Learnt?," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 26(2), pages 375-397, April.
    30. Sarah L. Jack, 2005. "The Role, Use and Activation of Strong and Weak Network Ties: A Qualitative Analysis," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(6), pages 1233-1259, September.
    31. Esteban Lafuente & Yancy Vaillant & Josep Rialp, 2007. "Regional Differences in the Influence of Role Models: Comparing the Entrepreneurial Process of Rural Catalonia," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(6), pages 779-796.
    32. Joan-Lluis Capelleras & Kevin F Mole & Francis J Greene & David J Storey, 2008. "Do more heavily regulated economies have poorer performing new ventures? Evidence from Britain and Spain," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 39(4), pages 688-704, June.
    33. Francis J. Greene & Kevin F. Mole & David J. Storey, 2004. "Does More Mean Worse? Three Decades of Enterprise Policy in the Tees Valley," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 41(7), pages 1207-1228, June.
    34. Kevin F Mole & Mark Hart & Stephen Roper & David S Saal, 2011. "Broader or Deeper? Exploring the Most Effective Intervention Profile for Public Small Business Support," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 43(1), pages 87-105, January.
    35. Cassar, Gavin, 2004. "The financing of business start-ups," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 261-283, March.
    36. Yancy Vaillant & Esteban Lafuente, 2007. "Do different institutional frameworks condition the influence of local fear of failure and entrepreneurial examples over entrepreneurial activity?," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(4), pages 313-337, July.
    37. Kevin Mole & Mark Hart & Stephen Roper & David Saal, 2008. "Differential Gains from Business Link Support and Advice: A Treatment Effects Approach," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 26(2), pages 315-334, April.
    38. Susan Coleman & Alicia Robb, 2009. "A comparison of new firm financing by gender: evidence from the Kauffman Firm Survey data," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 33(4), pages 397-411, December.
    39. Cumming, Douglas J. & Fischer, Eileen, 2012. "Publicly funded business advisory services and entrepreneurial outcomes," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 467-481.
    40. Robert Bennett & Paul Robson, 2003. "Changing Use of External Business Advice and Government Supports by SMEs in the 1990s," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(8), pages 795-811.
    41. Monder Ram, 1999. "Managing Consultants in a Small Firm: A Case Study," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(6), pages 875-897, November.
    42. Cassar, Gavin, 2014. "Industry and startup experience on entrepreneur forecast performance in new firms," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 137-151.
    43. M. Patrizia Vittoria & Giuseppe Lubrano Lavadera, 2014. "Knowledge networks and dynamic capabilities as the new regional policy milieu. A social network analysis of the Campania biotechnology community in southern Italy," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(7-8), pages 594-618, October.
    44. repec:taf:entreg:v:23:y:2011:i:9-10:p:907-932 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Joan-Lluís Capelleras & Ignacio Contin-Pilart & Martin Larraza-Kintana & Victor Martin-Sanchez, 2019. "Entrepreneurs’ human capital and growth aspirations: the moderating role of regional entrepreneurial culture," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 52(1), pages 3-25, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Capelleras, Joan-Lluis & Mole, Kevin F., 2012. "How ‘buzz’ reduces uncertainty for new firm founders," MPRA Paper 38170, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Kevin Mole & David North & Robert Baldock, 2017. "Which SMEs seek external support? Business characteristics, management behaviour and external influences in a contingency approach," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 35(3), pages 476-499, May.
    3. Kevin Mole & Robert Baldock & David North, 2013. "Who Takes Advice? Firm Size Threshold, Competence, Concerns and Informality in a Contingency Approach," Research Papers 0009, Enterprise Research Centre.
    4. Joan-Lluis Capelleras & Ignacio Contín-Pilart & Martin Larraza-Kintana, 2011. "Publicly Funded Prestart Support for New Firms: Who Demands it and How it Affects Their Employment Growth," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 29(5), pages 821-847, October.
    5. Greene, Francis, 2012. "Should the focus of publicly provided small business assistance be on start-ups or growth businesses?," Occasional Papers 12/2, Ministry of Economic Development, New Zealand.
    6. Anoosheh Rostamkalaei & Mark Freel, 2017. "Business advice and lending in small firms," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 35(3), pages 537-555, May.
    7. Liang Han & Alan Benson, 2010. "The Use and Usefulness of Financial Assistance to UK SMEs," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 28(3), pages 552-566, June.
    8. Jonathan M Scott & David Irwin, 2009. "Discouraged Advisees? The Influence of Gender, Ethnicity, and Education in the Use of Advice and Finance by UK SMEs," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 27(2), pages 230-245, April.
    9. Norin Arshed & Colin Mason & Sara Carter, 2016. "Exploring the disconnect in policy implementation: A case of enterprise policy in England," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 34(8), pages 1582-1611, December.
    10. Monder Ram & Kiran Trehan & John Rouse & Kassa Woldesenbet & Trevor Jones, 2012. "Ethnic Minority Business Support in the West Midlands: Challenges and Developments," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 30(3), pages 504-519, June.
    11. Kristine M. Kuhn & Tera L. Galloway, 2015. "With a Little Help from My Competitors: Peer Networking among Artisan Entrepreneurs," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 39(3), pages 571-600, May.
    12. Katarzyna Łobacz & Paweł Głodek & Edward Stawasz & Piotr Niedzielski, 2016. "Utilisation of Business Advice in Small Innovative Firms: the Role of Trust and Tacit Knowledge," Entrepreneurial Business and Economics Review, Centre for Strategic and International Entrepreneurship at the Cracow University of Economics., vol. 4(2), pages 117-138.
    13. Norin Arshed & Sara Carter & Colin Mason, 2014. "The ineffectiveness of entrepreneurship policy: is policy formulation to blame?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 43(3), pages 639-659, October.
    14. Ratinho, Tiago & Amezcua, Alejandro & Honig, Benson & Zeng, Zhaocheng, 2020. "Supporting entrepreneurs: A systematic review of literature and an agenda for research," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    15. Barge-Gil, Andrés & Vivas-Augier, Carlos, 2019. "Does Cooperation with Universities and KIBS Matter? Firm-level Evidence from Spain," MPRA Paper 96949, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Kevin F Mole & Mark Hart & Stephen Roper & David S Saal, 2011. "Broader or Deeper? Exploring the Most Effective Intervention Profile for Public Small Business Support," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 43(1), pages 87-105, January.
    17. D.J. Webber & S. Johnson & S. Fargher, 2010. "Sector Variations in SMEs’ Use of External Business Advice," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 25(4), pages 339-355, June.
    18. Robert Wapshott & Oliver Mallett, 2018. "Small and medium-sized enterprise policy: Designed to fail?," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 36(4), pages 750-772, June.
    19. Georgios Fotopoulos & David J. Storey, 2019. "Public policies to enhance regional entrepreneurship: another programme failing to deliver?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 53(1), pages 189-209, June.
    20. Lovgren, Adam & Ross, R. Brent & Peterson, H. Christopher, 2012. "Overcoming Selection Bias in Measuring the Effect of Entrepreneurial Assistance Programs," 2012 Annual Meeting, August 12-14, 2012, Seattle, Washington 124815, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envirc:v:36:y:2018:i:1:p:3-27. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.