Assembling resources when forming a new business

Every business builds on a specific set of resources. New businesses in particular have to assemble external resources that are mostly new to them. This resource assembly requires developing business relationships with other actors that control and can provide the needed resources. Adopting a resource interaction perspective, this paper examines a case of a new business venture in the automobile industry. The case study shows that when forming a new business the actors possess only partial knowledge of how to assemble the resources. Consequently, the actors must engage in extensive adaptation and interaction with others to enact workable resource interfaces and combinations. This necessity makes the new business formation process nonlinear and onerous. Further, the case demonstrates that new business formation is a collective process involving not only the emergence of a formal business organization but also reorganizing the applicable resource market. Since third parties involved in developing the necessary resource combinations can be considered part of the new business venture, setting the boundaries of the new venture becomes arbitrary. The arbitrary nature of such boundary setting has implications in entrepreneurship studies with regard to the unit of analysis and the concept of opportunity.     

Interactive resource development in new business relationships

Interaction in business relationships is a significant means of resource development. Studies of these processes have focused on interactive development in long-term relationships between buyer and supplier. This study explores the characteristics of joint resource development in new business relationships, where the two parties have no previous experience of interacting with each other. The study is based on the industrial network model and contains two cases of interactive development of new products with entirely different features. This research shows that joint development in a new relationship is strongly dependent on the resources of other business partners, since no previous adaptations exist between the two focal actors. Access to these resources is achieved through the established business relationships of the two parties. Furthermore, previous interactions with other business partners have a significant impact on the outcome of interactive development in a new business relationship. The main reason for these conditions is that the features of the resources of the two parties have evolved during these interactions.     

Resources prospectively: How actors mobilize resources in business settings

Actors work with resources in putting their business plans into practice, some of which are close-at-hand and some at arm's length to that business. Furthermore, actors can transform and translate resources in more or less complex ways in bringing them into the realm of a business activity, for instance through a single transactional market exchange or a series of social exchanges, the economic dimensions of which are very much in the background. The IMP group's framings of resources in the Actors, Resources and Activities (ARA) approach and in the Resource Interaction approach form this paper's conceptual focus. The paper examines three cases of actors mobilizing resources and emphasizes: (1) The prospective or future-oriented quality of resources, in connection with actors' business plans and activities; (2) The distinct rules, customs and practices in settings that individuals recognize to be more or less economic and more or less social; and (3) The roles and identities of individuals alongside their business units.     

Franchisor strategy and firm performance: Making the most of strategic resource investments

A key decision for entrepreneurs in many retail and service firms is whether, and how much, to use franchising. If the decision is made to franchise, the actor may assume one of two “identities” or tactics: (1) the “chain builder,” who uses a blend of company and franchised outlets, and (2) the “turnkey,” who sells business opportunities but does not own any outlets. To benefit from their chosen strategy, franchisors must put resources in place to support it. We argue that franchisors use the chain building strategy to strike a balance between standardization and innovation by building resources that foster trust and encourage knowledge sharing with franchisees. In contrast, for turnkeys, a valuable set of operational routines is the critical strategic resource. To better appreciate how franchisors choose between the chain builder and turnkey strategies, we gathered survey information from 263 franchisors. Via this data, and as described herein, we learned that franchisors perform better when they invest in resources that best support their selected strategy.     

Businesses without glamour? an analysis of resources on performance by size and age in small service and retail firms

Research on factors influencing performance in new and small companies is extensive. Earlier work found that strategies (e.g. cost, quality, differentiation, etc.) affected performance contingent on industry conditions, the environment, and the entrepreneur’s background. Although this work provides a solid basis for understanding differences in entrepreneurial performance, some firms are limited in their choices of strategy due to size, age, or industry. Often these firms are in industries where entry barriers are low and competitive advantages are easily imitated.Small service and retail businesses operate in sectors where these conditions are apparent. Comprising more than 50% of all small firms, they require minimal start-up investments but face intense competition. Lacking the “glamour” of high innovation/high growth firms, service and retail companies are at the “end” of the value chain, their fortunes rising and falling as a result of the direct influence of the owner-founder. Hence, performance variation may be better explained by the capabilities of the firm or individual competencies of the owner-founder, that is the resource-base and resource combinations, rather than strategy.The strategic importance of an organization’s resources and capabilities is the foundation of resource-based theory. Resources are tangible and intangible assets tied to the firm in a relatively permanent fashion. Their combinations are heterogeneous and form the basis for product/market strategies. Studies of resources, strategies, and performance are emerging in the entrepreneurial area. Research shows that various resources in concert with different strategy types can lead to above average performance over the business life cycle, and that combinations of resources are related to survival. Yet the vast majority of work focuses on high growth, high tech, or manufacturing businesses. Less is known about the relationships of resources to performance in less “glamorous” sectors. In these small service and retail businesses, we speculate that resources, in particular human and organizational resources, may play a greater role in explaining performance than strategy. Further, as other authors have suggested, it is expected that the combinations of these resources will vary across age and size.This study examines the influence of human and organizational resources on performance in a sample of 195 service and retail firms operating in central New Jersey, using a structured questionnaire. All companies utilized a focus strategy (either focused cost or focused differentiation) and employed a minimum of 3 to a maximum of 100 employees. All measures had theoretical and/or empirical precedent and were tested statistically for reliability. We used factor analysis to reduce the independent variables to: two human resource variables (owner resources and commitment), one organizational resource variable (comprised of planning, systems, and staff skills), and one strategy variable (focused cost and focused differentiation). Control variables were business age, business size, environmental benignness, and industry growth. The dependent variable performance was measured in two ways: net cash flow and log of growth in employees over 3 years.The study first examined whether strategy or resources had a greater influence on performance. Results showed that strategy influenced performance less than human and organizational resources both individually and interactively. The influence of owner resources (background and attitudes) on net cash flow was stronger than on growth, where the only significant variable was industry (market) growth.To analyze effects of resources on performance by size, we divided the sample by size groupings, selecting the smallest (maximum five employees) and largest quartiles (minimum 16 employees), which were comprised of 55 and 50 companies, respectively. These analyses showed that owner resources, commitment, and organizational resources contributed positively to net cash flow in very small firms; however, interactive effects of these resource combinations were negative. For instance, owner resources and organizational resources together, and organizational resources and commitment together, resulted in less positive cash flow than when analyzed separately. This implies that different resource combinations can have negative influences in these very small firms.We examined age effects in the same manner as size—dividing the sample into age group quartiles and conducting an analysis only for very young (fewer than 5 years) and very old (minimum 19 years) groups, which comprised 54 and 52 companies, respectively. These analyses showed that although growth was more rapid among the youngest firms, there were no distinctive resource-based correlates to growth in either age group. Substantive increases in formalized systems and procedures were not apparent among the oldest of these companies compared with the youngest, contrary to previous work showing the evolution of these over business life cycles.Results of this study are applicable only in the context of service and retail firms, and, readers should note this sample was nonrandom and geographically concentrated. Our purpose was not to predict, but describe associations between resources and performance. This study shows that, for firms in competitive industries at the end of the value chain, type of strategy is less important than resource combinations for certain types of performance. Human and organizational resources are associated with more positive cash flow, whereas industry and market factors are related to growth. These results imply that firms seeking growth are best served by selecting and entering growth markets and industries. On the other hand, if strong positive cash flows are the primary objective, attention to combinations of resources is more important. For instance, owner-founders having a strong business and managerial background, and industry experience will need less formalized systems, whereas those owner-founders with weaker managerial resources might benefit from more formalized procedures and skilled staff.     

The glue and the pieces: Entrepreneurship and innovation in small-firm networks

The entrepreneurial view of the firm stresses the need for a more insightful understanding of business leaders within sets of SMEs. Here, competitiveness emerges as a network-embedded capability and the coordination among firms, maximizing firm-specific competencies, represents a strategic leverage in accomplishing and maintaining a sustainable competitive advantage. When the goal is not only greater efficiency in terms of the lowest cost but innovation in terms of how to improve productive performance by changing the way in which it is undertaken, a critical issue becomes the entrepreneur's ability to create, manage, and recombine the set of relationships with external suppliers. The ability to glue external expertise and capabilities in an original and unique way is considered the key factor in pursuing innovative performance.As orchestrators of inter-firm linkages, entrepreneurs relying on personal networks and prior relationships are able to identify possible sources of knowledge. As coordinators of such innovative ties, they combine a wide set of diverse competencies not only to overcome size constraints through development cost reduction, but also to recoup ideas and creativity for the realization of more complex typologies of innovation. These elements reduce the level of uncertainty, while enhancing early cooperation between firms.Because the entrepreneur is supposed to be able to manage a higher number of “innovative poles”, which can be better managed thanks to trust and reputation developed in prior relationships, the different management topology could be associated with a different level of supplier contribution to the development of new products.This paper provides insights into the role of suppliers in the new product development process, and explores the role of the entrepreneur in promoting and managing a wide set of external, innovative ties. Attention is focused on 103 small- and medium- sized firms located within two Italian industrial networks where interdependencies are unusually large and complex.With respect to the first aim, the empirical analysis confirmed SME's structural recourse to suppliers. More important, the contribution of such resources is not necessarily limited to cost reductions and marginal improvements. Although incremental contributions certainly exist and are relevant, more complex relationships largely focused on joint design and development emerge as important patterns in buyer—supplier interaction.With respect to the second aim, an entrepreneurial explanation of SMEs' innovative performance is advanced. In a competitive environment where the actors are not atomistic, but exist within systems of actors, the relational capability could represent for entrepreneurial firms the way to gain a sustainable competitive advantage. We found entrepreneurs who, exploiting basic experiences, seek new combinations among the various inter-firm ties, relying upon such linkages as a vehicle for transferring and combining their organizationally embedded learning capability. Our findings showed that (1) when the entrepreneur is leading and managing the business, more suppliers are involved in the development of new products, and (2) the type of contribution given by suppliers differs by management typology. More precisely, the incremental type of contribution is dominant whenever professional management is present, while the relevance of architectural and radical topologies increase when the entrepreneur is present.On a broader level, the findings suggest further studies to address the question of how internally determined, rather than spontaneous, is the evolution toward a network structure in sets of SMEs similar to those studied. We showed that the number and the quality of inter-firm relationships cannot be explained merely by environment-specific factors.     

The service triad: modelling dialectic tensions in service encounters

Models of service encounters are often fraught with reductionism, describing business relationships as mathematical combinations of dyadic constellations. Metaphors of ideal social relationships (marriages or friendships) are highlighted to stress normative aspects of equal, balanced and long-term business partnerships. However, these approaches are limited in their analytical sensitivity, as they cannot address the complexity of multipart relationships, where meanings, roles and relationships are continuously constructed and reconstructed. In order to understand the ambivalent quality of business interactions, this article analyses the corporate travel market by applying Simmel's depiction of the triad as a specific social form. Triadic constellations and more complex service networks involve dialectic tensions, simultaneously exhibiting loyalty and disloyalty, trust and distrust, empowerment and disempowerment. It is argued that a qualitative methodology is a more adequate approach to grasp such dynamic and contextual social realities, because (opposed to a quantitative approach) it is not confined to operate with mutually exclusive analytical categories.     

The roles of the private and public sectors in poverty reduction

There are two major actors involved in tackling the challenge of poverty: private businesses and government. Unfortunately, both actors have tended to view each other through the lens of negative stereotypes, and each actor (or its proponents) dismisses the contributions of the other player and minimises its role. Unusual compared to most past literature, Khare and Varman in their article 'Kafkaesque institutions at the base of the pyramid' in this journal in 2016 reject both the private and the public sectors. By contrast, in this article, I argue for an ideologically eclectic approach, and suggest appropriate roles for both business and government in poverty reduction. The private sector needs to focus on creating employment opportunities for the poor and the government should focus on providing basic public services to the poor.     

Networking and growth of young technology-intensive ventures in China

More often than not, new ventures lack established products, known technologies, longstanding customer relations, experienced managerial teams, sufficient capital, and strong reputations. Almost by definition, small, new firms lack the resources of many larger, established firms. The task of an infant firm, and a measure of its success, is to make a transition from being resource weak to being resource strong.How can resources that are critical for profitable growth be acquired for the resource weak new venture? Researchers have found that entrepreneurs can gain access to valuable resources and they can seek to achieve competitive advantage through “networking activities.” Forming and utilizing available relationships with external organizations can allow entrepreneurs to build credibility, gain advice, financing, and customer access, build a positive image and obtain resources at below-market prices, and obtain channel access, information, and innovations. Business relationships with other organizations allow an entrepreneur to achieve desired business results through “asset parsimony.”A favorable view toward networking for new ventures leaves a number of unanswered questions, however. Relevant research questions might include, who should the entrepreneur seek as a business partner? Are all inter-organizational relationships equal, or are some types more valuable to new ventures than other relationships? Do firms relying on high levels of networking activities actually outperform firms that less actively seek resources through external organizational relationships?The present study provides a specific understanding of the concept of networking for entrepreneurs. We propose that networking can be understood in terms of “range,” the number of external relationships to obtain resources, and of “intensity,” the frequency of contact of and amount of resource obtained from these relationships. This research project evaluates the range and intensity of networking among high-growth and low-growth entrepreneurial ventures.Extensive interviewing with managers of six young technology-oriented firms in the People's Republic of China (PRC) affirmed the importance of entrepreneurial networking. Managers in the three high-growth firms reported greater range and intensity of business networking than did managers of three low-growth firms, matched by industry and age. Moreover, the relationship between networking activities and growth transcended the stage of firm development.Where networking range and intensity are deemed important in the growth process, new venture success may call for entrepreneurs to reach out deliberately to external organizations to capture needed resources. To a certain extent, such networking activities run counter to important entrepreneurial motivations of independence and autonomy. The concept of networking, and the results of this study, imply that entrepreneurs need to combine the spirit of independence with the reality of resource dependence, and they need to balance personal autonomy with strategic business relationships.This study also contributes to the understanding of entrepreneurship in our increasingly global economy, particularly in the PRC. Business relationships between the United States and the PRC have been expanding rapidly in the last decade. Many foreign businesses seek license agreements, joint venture partners, equity participation, or channel relationships with young ventures in that country. Do the same rules of networking apply in the PRC as the literature suggests apply in the United States? New ventures in this study were found to engage in processes of networking activities consistent with those in the West. Although networking activities may have different cultural roots, firm success appeared influenced by the same principles of networking.     

A commentary essay on “Resources prospectively: How actors mobilize resources in business settings”

This commentary essay explores the topic of mobilizing resources and specifically addresses the article “Resources prospectively: How actors mobilize resources in business settings” (Finch et al., in this issue). This article views access to resources as the foundation for interaction between firms and as mediated via developing business relationships. The article by Finch, Wagner and Hynes adds insights into this particular context by investigating the role of the individual in mobilizing resources and initiating a discussion on how resources are created.     

Firms' use of organizational,personal, and intermediary networks to gain access to resources for internationalization

This study explores which networks are beneficial for gaining resources for firms' internationalization. Little is known about firms' use of organizational, personal, and intermediary networks to gain access to resources for internationalization. Firms are seeking resources through their organization's relationships (organizational networks) and individuals' personal contacts (personal networks). Governmental and industry actors are implementing networks to promote international growth and act as an intermediary between business actors (intermediary networks). We conduct in‐depth interviews with firms and representatives for intermediary networks complemented with a survey. The findings reveal which resources are accessed through the different networks. We find organizational networks provide considerable access to most resources (except financial resources) that are beneficial for internationalization, whereas intermediary networks provide access to reputational, human, and market resources. Personal networks primarily provide access to human resources. This study contributes to theory by giving a more fine‐grained understanding of how different types of networks give access to different resources valuable for internationalization.     

Commentary on leveraging knowledge based resources: The role of contracts

The commentary first discusses the main argument of Mouzas and Ford. The commentary then addresses how contracts can be understood in business networks by relating the concept to the three main IMP models. The conclusion is that the article is an important step in linking ideas of business contracts and resource interaction in relational settings. Mouzas and Ford examine how contracts are used to leverage knowledge based resources through interaction with other idiosyncratically capable firms. In particular, they empirically investigate the use of umbrella contracts as manifestations of joint consent in manufacturer — retailer relationships as a specific form of contract for this purpose. The authors take an industrial networks perspective, making (forms of) contracts resources within a relational, interactive frame of exchange. This in itself is valuable, as contracts in an industrial networks perspective may easily be viewed as one out of many contextual parameters to transactions carried out within business relationships. There are three general models or frameworks in IMP that may be used to analyse the role of contracts within an interactive and relational frame of exchange. These are the interaction model (Håkansson, 1982), the actors-resources-activities (ARA) model (Håkansson & Snehota, 1995) and the 4 resource model (Håkansson & Håkansson and Waluszewski, 2002).     

The pervasive effects of family on entrepreneurship: toward a family embeddedness perspective

Families and businesses have often been treated as naturally separate institutions, whereas we argue that they are inextricably intertwined. Long-term changes in family composition and in the roles and relations of family members have produced families in North America that are growing smaller and losing many of their previous role relationships. Such transformations in the institution of the family have implications for the emergence of new business opportunities, opportunity recognition, business start-up decisions, and the resource mobilization process. We suggest that entrepreneurship scholars would benefit from a family embeddedness perspective on new venture creation.     

Need,creed, and greed: Understanding why business leaders focus on issues of peace

While we know that business is key for stable peacebuilding, less is known about why business actually becomes involved in peace processes and peacebuilding. Based on a review of the academic literature and of case studies at the global level, this article addresses this question from three perspectives: First, business needs peace to solve specific problems related to their operations in unstable contexts. Second, some business leaders believe that social change is positive and in their self-interest and are willing to promote transformations (creed). Finally, business participation in peacebuilding may be motivated by the anticipation of renewed investment, profit, and growth (greed). The article argues that none of these perspectives alone can explain the bulk of business participation in peacebuilding efforts. Rather, depending on actor and context, each business strategy can be traced to multiple combinations of these motivations. The article suggests that simplistic generalizations hurt the development of desperately needed partnerships in mutual learning processes between business and other social actors. We need improved knowledge and understanding of the mechanisms of private sector decision making in transitional processes in order to stem unrealistic expectations or frustrations as to the capability and willingness of the private sector in supporting peace-related activity. This interdisciplinary approach should draw from management sciences, political science, and economics.     

Business and the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Polis:</Emphasis> What Does it Mean to See Corporations as Political Actors?

This article addresses the recent call in business ethics literature for a better understanding of corporations as political actors or entities. It first gives an overview of recent attempts to examine classical issues in business ethics through a political lens. It examines different ways in which theorists with an interest in the normative analysis of business practices and institutions could find it desirable and fruitful to use a political lens. This article presents a distinction among four views of the relations between corporations and politics: corporations as distributive agents, corporations as political communities, corporate practices and policies as citizenship issues, and corporations as active participants in the political process. This article finishes with an examination of three challenges that need to be overcome by the theory of the firm as a political actor.     

Born global or local? Factors influencing the internationalization of university spin-offs—the case of Halmstad University

A wealth of research in the past decades has examined born globals or international new ventures, which are firms that from inception view the whole world as a market and as a source to access resources. Many of these firms build their competitive advantage on high-tech knowledge. However, although many studies have shown how born globals can achieve success if they access resources through their relationships from actors in their networks, few studies have explored the relationship between born globals and universities. Universities are important actors in creating new technology knowledge, and many studies have shown how new firms, or so-called university spin-offs (USOs), are formed around universities. The current study explores why some USOs are successful in their international growth strategy and discusses the factors that influence and facilitate the internationalization process. The study investigates 10 USOs around the newly established Halmstad University in Sweden and finds that universities have a positive effect on firm creation and initial international growth. The regional competence base increases from the establishment of a local university, primarily by strengthening the regional human capital and by increasing university research. This study shows that researcher entrepreneurs’ ventures start as born globals, but that these firms do not continue to grow. Born global business models, per se, do not lead to competitive advantage and successful internationalization. Instead, a strategy built on customer focus and an ability to adapt to different customer demands lead to growth, and the location of growth is dependent on the size of the home market. This study also shows that student entrepreneurship can be a successful growth strategy for USOs focusing on both international and local markets.     

Work Family Conflict in New Business Ventures: The Moderating Effects of Spousal Commitment to the New Business Venture

The creation of new business ventures (NBVs) is considered to be a central element of entrepreneurship theory and research. The processes by which individuals set intentions, gather resources, build organizations, and manage exchanges between the organization and external groups (which include family members) are important processes in the creation of NBVs. The more NBVs do these activities, the more likely they will succeed. Different research agendas have examined the factors that influence the new business venture operator's (NBVO) success in forming a NBV. One of the more recent streams of research has focused on the NBVO's human and social capital. Human capital in the form of education and experience appears to be an important asset to the NBVO. Social capital as a NBVO resource is less widely studied. Davidsson and Honig suggest that simply having a spouse is an important resource for NBVOs. Previous research suggests that spousal social support may be helpful for several reasons. First, some spouses may provide unpaid work to help the business succeed. They may provide financial resources which reduce the urgency of cash flow problems or facilitate the entrepreneur's abilities to acquire loans. Finally, they may provide emotional encouragement and support. Together, these spousal resources may help NBVOs to overcome the liabilities of newness. However, others have suggested that spouses may be a liability and that work and family conflict may become a resource constraint for married NBVOs. There is a limited but growing body of research empirically demonstrating that married NBVOs are likely to experience strain from work and family conflict (WFC). Married NBVOs may have complex family dynamics, and spouses may act in ways that create strain on the NBVO. From a social capital perspective, social capital needs to be maintained which can be a resource drain. If so, then those spousal actions are likely to draw on the NBVOs resources to manage family dynamics. This resource drain could negatively affect the success of the NBV. Based on Sustainable Family Business Theory II, this paper investigates the degree that the NBVO's spouse is a constraint on the creation of a NBV. In particular, we focus on NBVO strain as there is significant evidence that NBVOs experience more strain than individuals in other types of gainful employment. Furthermore, this strain has some debilitating effects that may threaten the viability of any business venture. This could be most critical in the start‐up phase when the survival of the firm is most at risk. Using Sustainable Family Business Theory II as a foundation, we investigate the degree that WFC creates NBVO strain both directly from NBVO's perceptions of WFC and the degree that spouse may be a liability by passing spousal strain from WFC to the NBVO. Furthermore, we investigate how a spouse who is committed to the NBVO may exacerbate the liability of newness. We test these relationships on a sample of 110 new small businesses provided through two different state Small Business Development Center offices. This sample represented a diversity of industries and diversity by gender. The results suggest that when a spouse experiences WFC, a spouse is likely to be a resource constraint that creates NBVO physiological strain. Furthermore, spousal commitment to the NBV is likely to exacerbate this relationship. These results imply that, first, a spouse is not inherently a resource or a constraint in the creation of NBVs. The degree of spousal WFC is likely to expand or constrict NBVO resources to be successful. Thus, more research is needed to investigate WFC linked to NBV creation.     

Trust and Co-operation in Business Relationship Development: Exploring the Influence of National Values

This paper makes an initial exploration of whether and to what extent different national values may affect the development of business relationships between individuals in different countries, by specifically examining the development of trust and co-operation between people. It first identifies key factors that may determine the nature and effect of trust in business relationships. Trust based on calculus, knowledge, and identification are distinguished. Inhibitions to co-operation are also identified, which include the perceptions of economic value, of social returns, of risk, and of competence of the potential co-operating parties. A model of trust formation and its impact on co-operation enabling detailed interpretation of empirical data is presented.

Notions of national values developed in previous research are outlined, and a set of formal tabulated propositions regarding how these may be expected to influence different aspects of trust formation in different European countries is developed. The relevance and applicability in understanding different approaches to business development in different countries is then explored. The trust relationships of three matched case companies, one each from France, Holland and the United Kingdom are examined in terms of the propositions detailed, by means of verbal protocol analysis. Marked differences were found between the three individual business leaders, and these largely matched the theoretical propositions generated. Different types of trust relationships were sought and required by the individuals examined, and they each needed different co-operation criteria to be addressed before they would co-operate.

This study is only exploratory, and stereotypes need to be avoided, but more concrete propositions can be suggested as to why and how national values influence business to business relationships. National values appear to influence the relative importance placed by individuals in the types of trust they require to co-operate with others, and the criteria they implicitly employ in deciding whether to co-operate or not.     

Access (Not) Denied: The Impact of Financial, Human, and Cultural Capital on Entrepreneurial Entryin the United States

Entrepreneurship contributes to business dynamics in all economies, and the individual benefits of starting a business are clear. Nonetheless, access to business start-ups may not be available to all people because of resource constraints. Using a unique new data set for the United States, we examine the relative importance of three forms of resources in pursuing start-up ventures: financial, human, and cultural capital. Our analysis of the Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics shows that neither financial nor cultural capital resources are necessary conditions for entrepreneurial entry. By contrast, potential entrepreneurs gain significant advantages if they possess high levels of human capital. Specifically, advanced education and managerial experience are significantly positively associated with entrepreneurial entry. Our findings suggest that attempts at entering entrepreneurship, at least in the short-term, may be increasing, as opportunities to acquire human capital are becoming more widespread.