Details
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 161 |
| Journal | Economies |
| Volume | 11 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| Publication status | Published - 7 Jun 2023 |
Abstract
Youth entrepreneurship is an increasingly prominent aspect of entrepreneurship support policies, but there is surprisingly little relevant research-based empirical evidence. This research gap is particularly noticeable when it comes to the personal and contextual factors that steer young people’s decision to start a business. Using statistically representative survey data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor for Germany, we apply logit regressions to determine the influence of 10 independent variables on the likelihood of starting a business. We distinguish between 18–24-year-olds and 25–64-year-olds as well as between founders and non-founders. Self-efficacy in entrepreneurial skills, fear of failure and gender are the strongest influencing variables for the person-related factors and knowledge of other founders for the contextual factors. For younger people, the formal level of education and the perception of local entrepreneurial opportunities do not play a role in the decision to start a business, whereas they are very important for older people. Our results suggest that start-up promotion policies should explicitly address the empirically proven factors of youth entrepreneurship instead of a ‘one size fits all’ policy for new businesses, regardless of the age of the founders.
Keywords
- demographics, entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship policies, Germany, Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), spatial context, youth entrepreneurship
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Social Sciences(all)
- Development
- Economics, Econometrics and Finance(all)
- Economics, Econometrics and Finance (miscellaneous)
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In: Economies, Vol. 11, No. 6, 161, 07.06.2023.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Youth Entrepreneurship in Germany
T2 - Empirical Evidence on the How, the Why, the How Many, the Who and the When
AU - Sternberg, Rolf
AU - Breitenbach, David
PY - 2023/6/7
Y1 - 2023/6/7
N2 - Youth entrepreneurship is an increasingly prominent aspect of entrepreneurship support policies, but there is surprisingly little relevant research-based empirical evidence. This research gap is particularly noticeable when it comes to the personal and contextual factors that steer young people’s decision to start a business. Using statistically representative survey data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor for Germany, we apply logit regressions to determine the influence of 10 independent variables on the likelihood of starting a business. We distinguish between 18–24-year-olds and 25–64-year-olds as well as between founders and non-founders. Self-efficacy in entrepreneurial skills, fear of failure and gender are the strongest influencing variables for the person-related factors and knowledge of other founders for the contextual factors. For younger people, the formal level of education and the perception of local entrepreneurial opportunities do not play a role in the decision to start a business, whereas they are very important for older people. Our results suggest that start-up promotion policies should explicitly address the empirically proven factors of youth entrepreneurship instead of a ‘one size fits all’ policy for new businesses, regardless of the age of the founders.
AB - Youth entrepreneurship is an increasingly prominent aspect of entrepreneurship support policies, but there is surprisingly little relevant research-based empirical evidence. This research gap is particularly noticeable when it comes to the personal and contextual factors that steer young people’s decision to start a business. Using statistically representative survey data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor for Germany, we apply logit regressions to determine the influence of 10 independent variables on the likelihood of starting a business. We distinguish between 18–24-year-olds and 25–64-year-olds as well as between founders and non-founders. Self-efficacy in entrepreneurial skills, fear of failure and gender are the strongest influencing variables for the person-related factors and knowledge of other founders for the contextual factors. For younger people, the formal level of education and the perception of local entrepreneurial opportunities do not play a role in the decision to start a business, whereas they are very important for older people. Our results suggest that start-up promotion policies should explicitly address the empirically proven factors of youth entrepreneurship instead of a ‘one size fits all’ policy for new businesses, regardless of the age of the founders.
KW - demographics
KW - entrepreneurship
KW - entrepreneurship policies
KW - Germany
KW - Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM)
KW - spatial context
KW - youth entrepreneurship
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85163709913&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/economies11060161
DO - 10.3390/economies11060161
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85163709913
VL - 11
JO - Economies
JF - Economies
IS - 6
M1 - 161
ER -