IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sbr/abstra/v62y2010i2p154-174.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Necessity and Opportunity Entrepreneurs in Germany: Characteristics and Earning s Differentials

Author

Listed:
  • Joern H. Block
  • Marcus Wagner

Abstract

In this paper we discuss necessity and opportunity entrepreneurship. We use panel data to analyze how these two types of entrepreneurs differ in general, and in their ability to discover and exploit entrepreneurial opportunities. We find that the opportunities exploited by opportunity entrepreneurs are generally more profitable than are those exploited by necessity entrepreneurs. We also find that the determinants of success differ to a strong degree. Standard wage equations seem to work better for opportunity than for necessity entrepreneurs. Our findings indicate a need to distinguish between the two groups in entrepreneurship theory and practice.

Suggested Citation

  • Joern H. Block & Marcus Wagner, 2010. "Necessity and Opportunity Entrepreneurs in Germany: Characteristics and Earning s Differentials," Schmalenbach Business Review (sbr), LMU Munich School of Management, vol. 62(2), pages 154-174, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:sbr:abstra:v:62:y:2010:i:2:p:154-174
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.vhb.de/sbr/pdfarchive.html
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Devine, T. J. & Kiefer, N. M., 1995. "The empirical status of job search theory," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 2(1), pages 101-101, March.
    2. Wagner, Joachim, 2005. "Nascent and Infant Entrepreneurs in Germany: Evidence from the Regional Entrepreneurship Monitor (REM)," IZA Discussion Papers 1522, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Gry Agnete Alsos & Lars Kolvereid, 1998. "The Business Gestation Process of Novice, Serial, and Parallel Business Founders," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 22(4), pages 101-114, July.
    4. Zoltan J. Acs & Attila Varga, 2008. "Entrepreneurship, Agglomeration and Technological Change," Chapters, in: Entrepreneurship, Growth and Public Policy, chapter 24, pages 341-352, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. Robert W. Fairlie & Bruce D. Meyer, 1996. "Ethnic and Racial Self-Employment Differences and Possible Explanations," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 31(4), pages 757-793.
    6. Justin van der Sluis & Mirjam van Praag & Wim Vijverberg, 2003. "Entrepreneurship Selection and Performance," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 03-046/3, Tinbergen Institute, revised 24 Sep 2004.
    7. Joachim Wagner, 2005. "Nascent and Infant Entrepreneurs in Germany. Evidence from the Regional Entrepreneurship Monitor (REM)," Working Paper Series in Economics 1, University of Lüneburg, Institute of Economics.
    8. repec:bla:scotjp:v:45:y:1998:i:5:p:586-91 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. von Hagen, Jurgen & Strauch, Rolf, 2000. "East Germany: Transition With Unification - Experiments and Experiences," CEPR Discussion Papers 2386, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    10. Sarah Brown & John Sessions, 1998. "Education, Employment Status and Earnings: A Comparative Test of the Strong Screening Hypothesis," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 45(5), pages 586-591, November.
    11. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Schooling, Experience, and Earnings," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number minc74-1.
    12. Matthias Benz & Bruno S. Frey, 2008. "Being Independent is a Great Thing: Subjective Evaluations of Self‐Employment and Hierarchy," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 75(298), pages 362-383, May.
    13. Cooper, Arnold C. & Woo, Carolyn Y. & Dunkelberg, William C., 1988. "Entrepreneurs' perceived chances for success," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 3(2), pages 97-108.
    14. Reize, Frank, 2000. "Leaving unemployment for self-employment: a discrete duration analysis of determinants and stability of self-employment among former unemployed," ZEW Discussion Papers 00-26, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    15. Wagner, Joachim & Sternberg, Rolf, 2002. "Personal and Regional Determinants of Entrepreneurial Activities: Empirical Evidence from the REM Germany," IZA Discussion Papers 624, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Evans, David S & Leighton, Linda S, 1989. "Some Empirical Aspects of Entrepreneurship," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(3), pages 519-535, June.
    17. Pfeiffer, Friedhelm & Reize, Frank, 2000. "Business start-ups by the unemployed -- an econometric analysis based on firm data," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 7(5), pages 629-663, September.
    18. van der Sluis, Justin & van Praag, Mirjam C. & van Witteloostuijn, Arjen, 2007. "Why Are the Returns to Education Higher for Entrepreneurs than for Employees?," IZA Discussion Papers 3058, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Charles A. Campbell, 1992. "A Decision Theory Model for Entrepreneurial Acts," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 17(1), pages 21-27, October.
    20. Joachim Wagner, 2005. "Nascent Necessity and Opportunity Entrepreneurs in Germany. Evidence from the Regional Entrepreneurship Monitor (REM)," Labor and Demography 0506004, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    21. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Schooling and Earnings," NBER Chapters, in: Schooling, Experience, and Earnings, pages 41-63, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    22. Parker,Simon C., 2006. "The Economics of Self-Employment and Entrepreneurship," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521030632, October.
    23. Niefert, Michaela & Tchouvakhina, Margarita, 2005. "Gründungen aus der Arbeitslosigkeit: Besondere Merkmale und Unterschiede zu anderen Gründungen," ZEW Expertises, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research, number 110496.
    24. Barton H. Hamilton, 2000. "Does Entrepreneurship Pay? An Empirical Analysis of the Returns to Self-Employment," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 108(3), pages 604-631, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Block, Joern & Sandner, Philipp, 2006. "The Effect of Motivation on Self-Employment Duration in Germany: Necessity versus Opportunity Entrepreneurs," MPRA Paper 215, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Jörn Block & Philipp Sandner, 2009. "Necessity and Opportunity Entrepreneurs and Their Duration in Self-employment: Evidence from German Micro Data," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 9(2), pages 117-137, June.
    3. Fossen, Frank M. & Büttner, Tobias J.M., 2013. "The returns to education for opportunity entrepreneurs, necessity entrepreneurs, and paid employees," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 66-84.
    4. Sandner, Philipp G. & Block, Jörn H. & Lutz, Andreas, 2008. "Determinanten des Erfolgs staatlich geförderter Existenzgründungen – eine empirische Untersuchung," Discussion Papers in Business Administration 2968, University of Munich, Munich School of Management.
    5. Renaud Bourlès & Anastasia Cozarenco, 2018. "Entrepreneurial motivation and business performance: evidence from a French Microfinance Institution," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 51(4), pages 943-963, December.
    6. Anu Tokila & Hannu Tervo, 2011. "Regional differences in returns to education for entrepreneurs versus wage earners," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 47(3), pages 689-710, December.
    7. Nardo Vries & Werner Liebregts & André Stel, 2020. "Explaining entrepreneurial performance of solo self-employed from a motivational perspective," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 55(2), pages 447-460, August.
    8. Benjamin A. Campbell, 2013. "Earnings Effects of Entrepreneurial Experience: Evidence from the Semiconductor Industry," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 59(2), pages 286-304, February.
    9. Johannes Martin, 2013. "The Impact on Earnings When Entering Self-Employment: Evidence for Germany," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 537, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    10. A. Amaral & Rui Baptista & Francisco Lima, 2011. "Serial entrepreneurship: impact of human capital on time to re-entry," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 37(1), pages 1-21, July.
    11. Werner Bönte & Oliver Falck & Stephan Heblich, 2009. "The Impact of Regional Age Structure on Entrepreneurship," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 85(3), pages 269-287, July.
    12. C. Praag & Peter Versloot, 2007. "What is the value of entrepreneurship? A review of recent research," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 29(4), pages 351-382, December.
    13. Sarkar, Soumodip & Rufín, Carlos & Haughton, Jonathan, 2018. "Inequality and entrepreneurial thresholds," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 278-295.
    14. Douhan, Robin & van Praag, Mirjam, 2009. "Entrepreneurship, Wage Employment and Control in an Occupational Choice Framework," Working Paper Series 805, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    15. Preeya S. Mohan, 2019. "Necessity Versus Opportunity Motivation: Nascent Firm Performance In Caribbean Small Island Developing States," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 24(04), pages 1-22, December.
    16. Werner, Arndt, 2011. "Abbruch und Aufschub von Gründungsvorhaben: Eine empirische Analyse mit den Daten des Gründerpanels des IfM Bonn," IfM-Materialien 209, Institut für Mittelstandsforschung (IfM) Bonn.
    17. Garcia-Mainar, Inmaculada & Montuenga-Gomez, Victor M., 2005. "Education returns of wage earners and self-employed workers: Portugal vs. Spain," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 161-170, April.
    18. Elke Lüdemann, 2011. "Schooling and the Formation of Cognitive and Non-cognitive Outcomes," ifo Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsforschung, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 39.
    19. Iversen Jens & Malchow-Møller Nikolaj & Sørensen Anders, 2011. "The Returns to Education in Entrepreneurship: Heterogeneity and Non-Linearities," Entrepreneurship Research Journal, De Gruyter, vol. 1(3), pages 1-38, July.
    20. Inmaculada Garc�a Mainar & V�ctor M. Montuenga G�mez, 2004. "Returns to education and to experience within the EU: are there differences between wage earners and the self-employed?," Documentos de Trabajo dt2004-08, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales, Universidad de Zaragoza.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Earnings Equation; Necessity Entrepreneurship; Opportunity Discovery; Opportunity Entrepreneurship; Opportunity Exploitation.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • M13 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - New Firms; Startups

    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:sbr:abstra:v:62:y:2010:i:2:p:154-174. 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: sbr (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/fbmunde.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.