IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/respol/v45y2016i5p1014-1030.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How the founders’ general and specific human capital drives export activities of start-ups

Author

Listed:
  • Stucki, Tobias

Abstract

At first glance, a typical start-up does not seem to have the required capabilities to enter foreign markets. Nevertheless, 26% of the firms of a representative sample of Swiss start-ups already perform export activities three years after their foundation, and the firms with export activities generate 39% of their sales abroad on average. Previous studies identified the founders’ human capital as an important driver of early internationalization. In this paper, however, we find that differences exist in the effect of the founders’ general and specific human capital. While the founders’ general human capital affects both export propensity and intensity, their export-specific experience only affects export propensity but not intensity. Furthermore, we find evidence that the effect of general human capital is more persistent than the effect of specific human capital.

Suggested Citation

  • Stucki, Tobias, 2016. "How the founders’ general and specific human capital drives export activities of start-ups," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(5), pages 1014-1030.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:respol:v:45:y:2016:i:5:p:1014-1030
    DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2016.02.010
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048733316300233
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.respol.2016.02.010?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mike Wright & Paul Westhead & Deniz Ucbasaran, 2007. "Internationalization of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and International Entrepreneurship: A Critique and Policy Implications," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(7), pages 1013-1030.
    2. Lenn Gomes & Kannan Ramaswamy, 1999. "An Empirical Examination of the Form of the Relationship Between Multinationality and Performance," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 30(1), pages 173-187, March.
    3. Erik Hurst & Benjamin Wild Pugsley, 2011. "What Do Small Businesses Do?," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 42(2 (Fall)), pages 73-142.
    4. Gary A Knight & S Tamar Cavusgil, 2004. "Innovation, organizational capabilities, and the born-global firm," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 35(2), pages 124-141, March.
    5. Vincent L. Barker , III & George C. Mueller, 2002. "CEO Characteristics and Firm R&D Spending," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 48(6), pages 782-801, June.
    6. Benjamin M. Oviatt & Patricia P. McDougall, 2005. "Defining International Entrepreneurship and Modeling the Speed of Internationalization," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 29(5), pages 537-553, September.
    7. Andreas Rauch & Serge A. Rijsdijk, 2013. "The Effects of General and Specific Human Capital on Long–Term Growth and Failure of Newly Founded Businesses," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 37(4), pages 923-941, July.
    8. Jan Johanson & Jan-Erik Vahlne, 1977. "The Internationalization Process of the Firm—A Model of Knowledge Development and Increasing Foreign Market Commitments," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 8(1), pages 23-32, March.
    9. Spyros Arvanitis & Tobias Stucki, 2012. "What determines the innovation capability of firm founders?," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press, vol. 21(4), pages 1049-1084, August.
    10. Scott Shane, 2009. "Why encouraging more people to become entrepreneurs is bad public policy," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 33(2), pages 141-149, August.
    11. Zucker, Lynne G. & Darby, Michael R. & Furner, Jonathan & Liu, Robert C. & Ma, Hongyan, 2007. "Minerva unbound: Knowledge stocks, knowledge flows and new knowledge production," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(6), pages 850-863, July.
    12. Robert Gibbons & Michael Waldman, 2004. "Task-Specific Human Capital," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(2), pages 203-207, May.
    13. Jones, Marian V. & Coviello, Nicole & Tang, Yee Kwan, 2011. "International Entrepreneurship research (1989–2009): A domain ontology and thematic analysis," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 26(6), pages 632-659.
    14. Chandler, Gaylen N. & Jansen, Erik, 1992. "The founder's self-assessed competence and venture performance," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 7(3), pages 223-236, May.
    15. Colombo, Massimo G. & Grilli, Luca, 2005. "Founders' human capital and the growth of new technology-based firms: A competence-based view," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(6), pages 795-816, August.
    16. Marian V Jones & Nicole E Coviello, 2005. "Internationalisation: conceptualising an entrepreneurial process of behaviour in time," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 36(3), pages 284-303, May.
    17. Villar, Cristina & Alegre, Joaquín & Pla-Barber, José, 2014. "Exploring the role of knowledge management practices on exports: A dynamic capabilities view," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 38-44.
    18. Gary A Knight & S Tamer Cavusgil, 2004. "Innovation, organizational capabilities, and the born-global firm," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 35(4), pages 334-334, July.
    19. Scott Shane, 2000. "Prior Knowledge and the Discovery of Entrepreneurial Opportunities," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 11(4), pages 448-469, August.
    20. D’Este, Pablo & Iammarino, Simona & Savona, Maria & von Tunzelmann, Nick, 2012. "What hampers innovation? Revealed barriers versus deterring barriers," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 482-488.
    21. Westhead, Paul & Wright, Mike & Ucbasaran, Deniz, 2001. "The internationalization of new and small firms: A resource-based view," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 333-358, July.
    22. Marco Gelderen & Roy Thurik & Niels Bosma, 2006. "Success and Risk Factors in the Pre-Startup Phase," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 26(4), pages 319-335, May.
    23. James M. Bloodgood & Harry J. Sapienza & James G. Almeida, 1996. "The Internationalization of New High-Potential U.S. Ventures: Antecedents and Outcomes," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 20(4), pages 61-76, July.
    24. Gary S. Becker, 1975. "Human Capital: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis, with Special Reference to Education, Second Edition," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number beck75-1, March.
    25. Heckman, James, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
    26. Panagiotis Ganotakis & James H Love, 2012. "Export propensity, export intensity and firm performance: The role of the entrepreneurial founding team," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 43(8), pages 693-718, October.
    27. Deniz Ucbasaran & Paul Westhead & Mike Wright, 2008. "Opportunity Identification and Pursuit: Does an Entrepreneur’s Human Capital Matter?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 30(2), pages 153-173, February.
    28. Stan D Reid, 1981. "The Decision-Maker and Export Entry and Expansion," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 12(2), pages 101-112, June.
    29. Gimmon, Eli & Levie, Jonathan, 2010. "Founder's human capital, external investment, and the survival of new high-technology ventures," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(9), pages 1214-1226, November.
    30. Hsu, David H., 2007. "Experienced entrepreneurial founders, organizational capital, and venture capital funding," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(5), pages 722-741, June.
    31. Andrea Calabrò & Donata Mussolino, 2013. "How do boards of directors contribute to family SME export intensity? The role of formal and informal governance mechanisms," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 17(2), pages 363-403, May.
    32. Rialp, Alex & Rialp, Josep & Knight, Gary A., 2005. "The phenomenon of early internationalizing firms: what do we know after a decade (1993-2003) of scientific inquiry?," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 147-166, April.
    33. Crick, Dave, 2004. "U.K. SMEs' decision to discontinue exporting: an exploratory investigation into practices within the clothing industry," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 561-587, July.
    34. Ernst Verwaal & Bas Donkers, 2002. "Firm Size and Export Intensity: Solving an Empirical Puzzle," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 33(3), pages 603-613, September.
    35. Shaker A Zahra, 2005. "A theory of international new ventures: a decade of research," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 36(1), pages 20-28, January.
    36. Jeffrey E. McGee & Michael J. Dowling & William L. Megginson, 1995. "Cooperative strategy and new venture performance: The role of business strategy and management experience," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(7), pages 565-580.
    37. Sumantra Ghoshal, 1987. "Global strategy: An organizing framework," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 8(5), pages 425-440, September.
    38. Andrea Bonaccorsi, 1992. "On the Relationship Between Firm Size and Export Intensity," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 23(4), pages 605-635, December.
    39. Brendan J Gray, 1997. "Profiling Managers to Improve Export Promotion Targeting," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 28(2), pages 387-420, June.
    40. Majocchi, Antonio & Bacchiocchi, Emanuele & Mayrhofer, Ulrike, 2005. "Firm size, business experience and export intensity in SMEs: A longitudinal approach to complex relationships," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 14(6), pages 719-738, December.
    41. A Rebecca Reuber & Eileen Fischer, 1997. "The Influence of the Management Team’s International Experience on the Internationalization Behaviors of SMES," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 28(4), pages 807-825, December.
    42. Benjamin M Oviatt & Patricia P McDougall, 2005. "The internationalization of entrepreneurship," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 36(1), pages 2-8, January.
    43. A. Gourlay & J. Seaton, 2004. "Explaining the decision to export: evidence from UK firms," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(3), pages 153-158.
    44. Dimov, Dimo P. & Shepherd, Dean A., 2005. "Human capital theory and venture capital firms: exploring "home runs" and "strike outs"," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 1-21, January.
    45. Cooper, Arnold C. & Gimeno-Gascon, F. Javier & Woo, Carolyn Y., 1994. "Initial human and financial capital as predictors of new venture performance," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 9(5), pages 371-395, September.
    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. Honjo, Yuji, 2021. "The impact of founders’ human capital on initial capital structure: Evidence from Japan," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    2. Khan, Muhammad Tariq Iqbal & Anwar, Sofia, 2022. "Natural disasters and foreign exchange reserves: The role of renewable energy and human capital," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 192(C), pages 838-848.
    3. Naldi, Lucia & Criaco, Giuseppe & Patel, Pankaj C., 2020. "Related and unrelated industry variety and the internationalization of start-ups," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(10).
    4. Laura H. Middermann & Lubna Rashid, 2019. "Cross-Country Differences in Entrepreneurial Internationalization Tendencies: Evidence from Germany and Pakistan," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-17, July.
    5. Zofia Gródek-Szostak & Marcin Suder & Anna Szeląg-Sikora & Luis Ochoa Siguencia, 2020. "The “Dobry Czas Na Biznes” (“Good Time for Business”) Program as a Form of Support for Self-Employment in Poland. A Case Study of the Sub-Regions of the Małopolskie Province," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-17, November.
    6. Shahid, Pirzada Syed Rizwan, 2023. "Founder's Human Capital and the Entrepreneurial Process Duration," OSF Preprints yf6mg, Center for Open Science.
    7. Laura von Arnim & Matthias Mrozewski, 2020. "Entrepreneurship in an Increasingly Digital and Global World. Evaluating the Role of Digital Capabilities on International Entrepreneurial Intention," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-18, September.
    8. Farhad Uddin Ahmed & Louis Brennan, 2019. "The impact of Founder’s human capital on firms’ extent of early internationalisation: Evidence from a least-developed country," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 36(3), pages 615-659, September.
    9. Anisur R. Faroque & Farhad Uddin Ahmed & Mahabubur Rahman & Mohammad Osman Gani & Sina Mortazavi, 2023. "Exploring the individual and joint effects of founders' and managers' experiential knowledge on international opportunity identification," Asian Business & Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 22(4), pages 1274-1300, September.
    10. David R. Williams & Betty S. Coffey & Carlton C. Young, 2018. "Human capital and agency effects on CEO compensation of IPO biopharmaceutical firms and the market’s response," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 22(2), pages 315-337, June.
    11. Hottenrott, Hanna & Richstein, Robert, 2020. "Start-up subsidies: Does the policy instrument matter?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(1).
    12. Haddoud, Mohamed Yacine & Onjewu, Adah-Kole Emmanuel & Nowiński, Witold & Jones, Paul, 2021. "The determinants of SMEs’ export entry: A systematic review of the literature," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 262-278.
    13. Wu, Lichao & Wei, Yingqi & Wang, Chengang, 2021. "Disentangling the effects of business groups in the innovation-export relationship," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(1).
    14. Honjo, Yuji & Kwak, Charee & Uchida, Hirofumi, 2022. "Initial funding and founders’ human capital: An empirical analysis using multiple surveys for start-up firms," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    15. Yongeun Choi & Wonsub Eum & Taewon Kang & Jeong‐Dong Lee, 2022. "Impacts of entrepreneurial experience on firm performance in IPO firms," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(8), pages 4064-4076, December.
    16. Masatoshi Kato, 2017. "Founders’ human capital and external knowledge sourcing: An absorptive capacity perspective for innovative start-ups," Discussion Paper Series 162, School of Economics, Kwansei Gakuin University, revised Jun 2017.
    17. Marco Ferretti & Salvatore Ferri & Raffaele Fiorentino & Adele Parmentola & Alessandro Sapio, 2020. "What drives the growth of academic spin-offs? Matching academics, universities, and non-research organizations," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 137-163, March.
    18. Ganotakis, Panagiotis & D'Angelo, Alfredo & Konara, Palitha, 2021. "From latent to emergent entrepreneurship: The role of human capital in entrepreneurial founding teams and the effect of external knowledge spillovers for technology adoption," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    19. Wu, Lichao & Wei, Yingqi & Wang, Chengang & McDonald, Frank & Han, Xia, 2022. "The importance of institutional and financial resources for export performance associated with technological innovation," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    20. Catão, Luis A. V. & de Faria, Pedro & Martins, António & Portela, Miguel, 2023. "Globalization and Firm Performance," IZA Discussion Papers 15903, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    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. Farhad Uddin Ahmed & Louis Brennan, 2019. "The impact of Founder’s human capital on firms’ extent of early internationalisation: Evidence from a least-developed country," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 36(3), pages 615-659, September.
    2. Love, James H. & Roper, Stephen & Zhou, Ying, 2016. "Experience, age and exporting performance in UK SMEs," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 806-819.
    3. José Ernesto Amorós & Rodrigo Basco & Gianni Romaní, 2016. "Determinants of early internationalization of new firms: the case of Chile," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 283-307, March.
    4. Jiang, Guohua & Kotabe, Masaaki & Zhang, Feng & Hao, Andy W. & Paul, Justin & Wang, Cheng Lu, 2020. "The determinants and performance of early internationalizing firms: A literature review and research agenda," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(4).
    5. Dzikowski, Piotr, 2018. "A bibliometric analysis of born global firms," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 281-294.
    6. Hashai, Niron & Zahra, Shaker A., 2022. "A double-edged sword? Founder Teams' Prior International Experience and INV International Scale-up," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 57(2).
    7. Jones, Marian V. & Coviello, Nicole & Tang, Yee Kwan, 2011. "International Entrepreneurship research (1989–2009): A domain ontology and thematic analysis," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 26(6), pages 632-659.
    8. Jana Drechsler & Jan-Thomas Bachmann & Andreas Engelen, 2019. "The effect of immigrants in the founding team on the international attention of new ventures," Journal of International Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 17(3), pages 305-333, September.
    9. Francisco García-Lillo & Enrique Claver-Cortés & Bartolomé Marco-Lajara & Mercedes Úbeda-García, 2017. "Mapping the Intellectual Structure of Research on ‘Born Global’ Firms and INVs: A Citation/Co-citation Analysis," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 57(4), pages 631-652, August.
    10. Nuno Calheiros-Lobo & José Vasconcelos Ferreira & Manuel Au-Yong-Oliveira, 2023. "SME Internationalization and Export Performance: A Systematic Review with Bibliometric Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-36, May.
    11. Oliva, Fábio Lotti & Teberga, Pedro Marins Freire & Testi, Lucas Israel Oliveira & Kotabe, Masaaki & Giudice, Manlio Del & Kelle, Peter & Cunha, Miguel Pina, 2022. "Risks and critical success factors in the internationalization of born global startups of industry 4.0: A social, environmental, economic, and institutional analysis," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    12. Marian V. Jones & Lucrezia Casulli, 2014. "International Entrepreneurship: Exploring the Logic and Utility of Individual Experience through Comparative Reasoning Approaches," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 38(1), pages 45-69, January.
    13. Khan, Zaheer & Lew, Yong Kyu, 2018. "Post-entry survival of developing economy international new ventures: A dynamic capability perspective," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 149-160.
    14. Nowinski, Witold & Rialp, Alex, 2013. "Drivers and strategies of international new ventures from a Central European transition economy," Journal of East European Management Studies, Rainer Hampp Verlag, vol. 18(2), pages 191-231.
    15. Tobias Kollmann & Julia Christofor, 2014. "International entrepreneurship in the network economy: Internationalization propensity and the role of entrepreneurial orientation," Journal of International Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 43-66, March.
    16. Ciravegna, Luciano & Kuivalainen, Olli & Kundu, Sumit K. & Lopez, Luis E., 2018. "The antecedents of early internationalization: A configurational perspective," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(6), pages 1200-1212.
    17. Baum, Matthias & Schwens, Christian & Kabst, Ruediger, 2015. "A latent class analysis of small firms’ internationalization patterns," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 50(4), pages 754-768.
    18. Stefano Denicolai & Birgit Hagen & Alessia Pisoni, 2015. "Be international or be innovative? Be both? The role of the entrepreneurial profile," Journal of International Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 13(4), pages 390-417, December.
    19. Marina Van Geenhuizen & Qing Ye & Manuel Au-Yong-Oliveira, 2015. "University spin-off firms? internationalization: Importance of skills," ERSA conference papers ersa15p644, European Regional Science Association.
    20. Sleuwaegen, Leo & Onkelinx, Jonas, 2014. "International commitment, post-entry growth and survival of international new ventures," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 106-120.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Export; Start-up; Founder characteristics; Human capital;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship
    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives

    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:eee:respol:v:45:y:2016:i:5:p:1014-1030. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/respol .

    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.