IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hit/hitcei/2008-22.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

When things get tough do the tough get going? Founders' pre-entry work experience and high-tech start-up survival during an industry crisis

Author

Listed:
  • Grilli, Luca

Abstract

This article adds new insights into the relationship between founders' human capital and the survival prospects of startup businesses. The impact of founders' human capital on firm survival is controversial. On one hand, more experienced and skilled individuals are likely to create start-up businesses with a high chance of survival; on the other hand, their opportunity costs to run the firm may be high given the potential returns for investing their efforts in alternative employment opportunities. Analysing a sample of 179 Italian start-up companies created during 1995-early 2000 and operating in ICT services markets, this study provides evidence that, in intense industry crises (early 2000-2003), highly work experienced entrepreneurs may pursue an exit strategy and highlights the importance of distinguishing between different types of work experience and different exit routes. In particular, founding teams with highly specific work experience show higher probability of following the M&A route, while a higher level of generic work experience is more conducive to closure.

Suggested Citation

  • Grilli, Luca, 2009. "When things get tough do the tough get going? Founders' pre-entry work experience and high-tech start-up survival during an industry crisis," CEI Working Paper Series 2008-22, Center for Economic Institutions, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    • Handle: RePEc:hit:hitcei:2008-22
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://hermes-ir.lib.hit-u.ac.jp/hermes/ir/re/29297/WP2008-22.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Astebro, Thomas & Bernhardt, Irwin, 2003. "Start-up financing, owner characteristics, and survival," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 55(4), pages 303-319.
    2. C. Mirjam van Praag, 2003. "Business Survival and Success of Young Small Business Owners," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 03-050/3, Tinbergen Institute.
    3. Silviano Pérez & Amparo Llopis & Juan Llopis, 2004. "The Determinants of Survival of Spanish Manufacturing Firms," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 25(3), pages 251-273, August.
    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. Tristan Boyer & Régis Blazy, 2013. "Born to be alive? The survival of innovative and non," Working Papers 2013-12, Department of Research, Ipag Business School.
    2. Tristan Boyer & Régis Blazy, 2014. "Born to be alive? The survival of innovative and non-innovative French micro-start-ups," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 42(4), pages 669-683, April.

    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. stefano Colombo & Luca Grilli, 2010. "Another unconsidered sinister effect of indusrty-specific crises? On the possible emergence of adverse selection phenomena on the survival of entrepreneurial ventures," DISCE - Quaderni dell'Istituto di Economia e Finanza ief0098, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).
    2. Marchetta, Francesca, 2012. "Return Migration and the Survival of Entrepreneurial Activities in Egypt," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(10), pages 1999-2013.
    3. Nicola Del Sarto & Alberto Di Minin & Giulio Ferrigno & Andrea Piccaluga, 2021. "Born global and well educated: start-up survival through fuzzy set analysis," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 56(4), pages 1405-1423, April.
    4. Metzger, Georg, 2007. "Personal Experience: A Most Vicious and Limited Circle!? On the Role of Entrepreneurial Experience for Firm Survival," ZEW Discussion Papers 07-046 [rev.], ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    5. Hanas Cader & John Leatherman, 2011. "Small business survival and sample selection bias," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 37(2), pages 155-165, September.
    6. Ron Jarmin & C.J. Krizan, 2010. "Past Experience and Future Success: New Evidence on Owner Characteristics and Firm Performance," Working Papers 10-24, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    7. Alexandra Tsvetkova & Jean-Claude Thill & Deborah Strumsky, 2014. "Metropolitan innovation, firm size, and business survival in a high-tech industry," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 43(3), pages 661-676, October.
    8. Guimarães Barbosa, Evaldo, 2016. "Determinants of Small Business Survival: The Case of Very Small Enterprises of the Traditional Manufacturing Sectors in Brazil," MPRA Paper 72304, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Miettinen Marika Rosanna & Littunen Hannu, 2013. "Factors Contributing to the Success of Start-Up Firms Using Two-Point or Multiple-Point Scale Models," Entrepreneurship Research Journal, De Gruyter, vol. 3(4), pages 449-481, June.
    10. Aidis, Ruta & van Praag, Mirjam, 2007. "Illegal entrepreneurship experience: Does it make a difference for business performance and motivation?," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 283-310, March.
    11. Marco Grazzi & Chiara Piccardo & Cecilia Vergari, 2022. "Turmoil over the crisis: innovation capabilities and firm exit," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 59(2), pages 537-564, August.
    12. Diana Hechavarría & Charles Matthews & Paul Reynolds, 2016. "Does start-up financing influence start-up speed? Evidence from the panel study of entrepreneurial dynamics," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 46(1), pages 137-167, January.
    13. Erik Stam & Roy Thurik & Peter van der Zwan, 2010. "Entrepreneurial exit in real and imagined markets," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 19(4), pages 1109-1139, August.
    14. Justo, Rachida & DeTienne, Dawn R. & Sieger, Philipp, 2015. "Failure or voluntary exit? Reassessing the female underperformance hypothesis," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 775-792.
    15. Francis Kipkogei & Ignace H. Kabano & Belle Fille Murorunkwere & Nzabanita Joseph, 2021. "Business success prediction in Rwanda: a comparison of tree-based models and logistic regression classifiers," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 1(8), pages 1-19, August.
    16. Baumöhl, Eduard & Iwasaki, Ichiro & Kočenda, Evžen, 2019. "Institutions and determinants of firm survival in European emerging markets," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 431-453.
    17. Francesco Quatraro & Marco Vivarelli, 2015. "Drivers of Entrepreneurship and Post-entry Performance of Newborn Firms in Developing Countries," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 30(2), pages 277-305.
    18. K. Poehlmann & R. Helm & O. Mauroner & J. Auburger, 2021. "Corporate spin-offs’ success factors: management lessons from a comparative empirical analysis with research-based spin-offs," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 15(6), pages 1767-1796, August.
    19. Luca Grilli, 2005. "Internet start-ups access to the bank loan market: evidence from Italy," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(3), pages 293-305.
    20. Ornella Wanda Maietta & Fernanda Mazzotta, 2018. "Firm Survival and Innovation: Knowledge Context Matters!," CSEF Working Papers 496, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    High-tech entrepreneurship; Start-up exit; Founders' human capital; ICT;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship
    • L86 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Information and Internet Services; Computer Software

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:hit:hitcei:2008-22. 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: Reiko Suzuki (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cehitjp.html .

    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.