Fear-of-failure and cultural persistence in youth entrepreneurship

Abstract

This paper demonstrates the high sensitivity of youth's fear of failure to local culture, in terms of its persistence across space and its change (hysteresis) in times of economic shocks, which renders entrepreneurship a very dubious tool for tackling youth unemployment especially in times of crisis. The paper compares in particular the propensity to entrepreneurship among young people in Germany and Greece as a function of their fear-of-failure and its variation across space (Greece and Germany) and over time (before and after the crisis in 2007). Data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) provides a pooled cross-section for the period 2003 -2010. We address the data using a probit model with year fixed effects. Regarding the influence of personal fear-of-failure, we find that youth between 15-24 years of age are less entrepreneurial in both Greece and Germany, while the 25-34 years old young adults in Greece are already at the same entrepreneurial level as an average adult. Our findings also support existing gender differentials in both countries, which generally phase out among young people. Yet, country differences in perceptions have the greatest impact on entrepreneurial propensity. Regarding the local cultural characteristics, there is evidence of cultural embeddedness and cultural persistence effects especially among youth between 15 and 24 years of age which makes entrepreneurship an unsuitable tool for handling youth unemployment especially for this age group.

Culture and mental health resilience in times of COVID-19

“…Under negative socio-economic shocks-such as the COVID-19 pandemic-a cultural hysteresis is documented to exist in entrepreneurial response to the shock due to differences in cultural identity . For example, in the economic crisis 2007, Greek youth became less entrepreneurially inclined, while German youth became more so (Tubadji et al 2019). The current paper argues that across individuals from the same cultural background, the response to the shock also differs due to their differences in mental health resilience.…”

“…There are certain empirical economic studies that point towards the relevance of looking at the link between mental and economic resilience. It has been shown that under shock conditions, cultural hysteresis explains the different reaction of places to the same/similar economic shocks (Tubadji et al 2019. It has also been debated whether the psychological types are constant over time or they are a subject to change (Obschonka et al 2013;Stuetzer et al 2014).…”

Causal modelling of failure fears for international entrepreneurs in tourism industry: a hybrid Delphi-DEMATEL based approach

“…This ambiguity is more tangible in the international tourism industry which relies on different concepts such as relationships and probable crisis. This factor also affects all others excluding environmental and consists of "Fear of uncertain future"; Causal modelling of failure fears "Monetary loss"; "Bankruptcy"; "Career damage"; and "Crisis" (Tubadji et al, 2019). These fears present the extreme state of a phenomenon including several aspects which are fundamentally necessary for being successful in entrepreneurs' careers.…”

The Impact of Cultural Capital on Development of Entrepreneurship in Wales

“…For instance, a study on youth entrepreneurship in Greece and Germany found evidence on cultural persistence regarding age-related readiness to take up entrepreneurial activity. Children of 15 to 24 years of age were less ready for business than 25-to 34-year-olds (Tubadji et al 2019). In addition, cultural relativity to the student's propensity was reported in the same study in line with evolutionary economic theory.…”

“…CBD is a specific research paradigm that studies culture in economic choice and develops a unique methodology for its empirical and theoretical exploration (Tubadji 2012(Tubadji , 2013(Tubadji , 2020. The CBD Research paradigm has been employed in studying how culture matters in explaining human behaviour in relation to migration (Tubadji and Nijkamp 2015), school-to-work-transition (Tubadji et al 2017), productivity (Tubadji 2013), innovation (Tubadji et al 2021c(Tubadji et al , 2021d, inequality (Tubadji et al 2020a), and entrepreneurship (Tubadji et al 2019). Consequently, in CBD's terms, entrepreneurship is viewed as a function of the complex dynamics in the cultural context (Tubadji 2012(Tubadji , 2013(Tubadji , 2020, which links CBD very closely to the sociological theory of cultural capital (Bourdieu 1986).…”