Human capital determinants of the survival of entrepreneurial service firms in Spain

Abstract

The claim of this paper is that an entrepreneur's human capital constitutes a key determinant of the survival time of new service industry companies created in Spain. To confirm this claim, a series of survival models has been specified and estimated for a sample of 237 Spanish service industry companies founded by one or more entrepreneurs between the years 2000 and 2004. We found that (1) both general and specific human capital have a positive impact on the survival time of a new firm and (2) human capital is accumulative, in the sense that the larger the number of entrepreneurs founding the company, the longer its survival time. We find that the specific aspects of human capital that are determinants of a company's survival time are gender, previous work experience in the same activity or as the owner of a firm, and the number of partners. However, educational and training characteristics do not play a relevant role as regards a firm's survival time. These facts suggest the presence of a gap between the objectives and results of current entrepreneurial-oriented training in Spain.Entrepreneurship is a major driver of innovation, competitiveness and growth. Due to their strong presence in key sectors such as services and professional activities, smaller enterprises and entrepreneurs today play a central role in the economy. A positive and robust correlation between entrepreneurship and economic performance has been found in terms of growth, firm survival, innovation, employment creation, Int Entrep Manag J (

Factores del servicio y del perfil del emprendedor que inciden en la superviviencia empresarial: una revisión crítica

“…Becker (1975) define el capital humano como el conjunto de las capacidades productivas que un individuo adquiere por acumulación de conocimientos generales o específicos y que puede ser acumulado y usarse; igualmente, plantea que el capital humano de un individuo puede ser de tipo general o específico. En el campo de la creación de empresas, el capital humano general incluye las características del emprendedor que no están directamente relacionadas con su rol como fundador de empresa; y el capital humano específico incluye la experiencia del fundador en el área de actividad de la nueva empresa tanto de orden técnico como de gestión (Arribas & Vila, 2007).…”

A Percepção de Oportunidades de Negócios por Imigrantes na Espanha: o impacto do capital humano geral e específico

“…For instance, some authors used general human capital (GHC) referring to the personal characteristics of the entrepreneur that do not directly refer to his/her role in the business (ARRIBAS;VILA, 2007). So, formal education and work experience are considered as being GHC (ARRIBAS;VILA, 2007;WRIGHT, 2008).…”

“…So, formal education and work experience are considered as being GHC (ARRIBAS;VILA, 2007;WRIGHT, 2008). Education is a common structure that provides individuals with skills and knowledge (ARRIBAS; VILA, 2007;DAVIDSSON;HONIG, 2003).…”

“…On the other hand, specific human capital (SHC) refers to professional and training experiences (ARRIBAS; VILA, 2007). Some studies have used specific human capital referring to skills and knowledge which is less transferable (GIMENO et al, 1997).…”

“…Also, managerial-business experience and entrepreneurial training (AMARAL; BAPTISTA; LIMA, 2011;ARRIBAS;VILA, 2007;LE, 2000) are considered as specific human capital, when controlling for their demographic characteristics. In general, our results reveal different impacts of specific and general human capital upon the perception of business opportunities among immigrants and natives in Spain.…”