Malgorzata A. Wdowiak

Linking the cultural capital of the entrepreneur and early performance of new ventures: A cross-country comparison*

We explore the impact of an entrepreneur’s cultural capital on the performance of new ventures in both mature and transition economies. Results show that individualistic values of the founder influence early performance of new ventures, irrespective of the country context; and that in less advanced transition economies, the entrepreneur’s cultural-background profile has a stronger influence on new venture performance than education or industry experience. Our findings support the assumption that entrepreneurial performance in new ventures is culture-driven, and suggest that economic analyses of entrepreneurial actions should encompass cultural values as well.

The role of entrepreneurship- and technology transfer oriented initiatives in improving the innovation system in the Western Balkans.

To improve the current political and social situation in Western Balkans, the region needs to gain economic stability. Regional academic institutions can play an important role in that respect. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the role that regional academic institutions can play in strengthening the regional system of innovation. Particularly, we discuss the importance of entrepreneurship education (EE) and technology transfer (TT), provide an overview of the state of their implementation and discuss examples of how institutional networks can engage in EE and TT, particularly to small and medium-sized enterprises. While institutions of higher education and public research institutions have already gone a long way to foster EE and TT, much remains to be done to reach their potential.

New Venture Performance in the Transition Economies: A Conceptual Model

Entrepreneurial activity is a critical issue in the transition of economies attempting to reduce, or abolish state-owned monopoly enterprises. In many Central and Eastern European countries, privatization, restructuring, and failure of state-owned enterprises as consequences of the reforms typically led to a reduction of the size of the workplace. For example, in Poland, about 3.5 million employees lost their jobs in the period 1991–1996 (PEAD, 2003). After the collapse of communism in Europe, post-communist countries have undertaken reforms to liberalize their economies. These reforms stimulated the development in the private sector of small and medium-sized enterprises. New ventures provide a counterbalance to the loss of jobs at state-owned companies. In the period 1991–1996, new enterprises in the private sector in Poland created more than 1.8 million jobs. By the end of 2002, they provided work for 68% of the total employed persons (PEAD, 2003). Further, new ventures can play a critical role in stimulating economic growth. As a result of market reforms, the contribution of the private sector to Gross Domestic Product, e.g., in Hungary, went from 7% in 1988 to 85% in 1999 (World Bank, 2000). However, many new ventures do not survive the first year of operation. For example, in Poland, about 40–45% enterprises established in the period 1995–2000 failed after the first year of their existence (PEAD, 2003).

The effects of social capital on the performance of newly founded businesses in Slovenia

The paper explores the impact of entrepreneurs social capital on new venture performance. We adopt a multidimensionality approach of social capital by examining the influence of the different dimensions (structural, relational, cognitive and resource dimension) on new venture performance. In particular, we focus on ventures that are within their first year of operation. The data consists of 300 newly founded businesses. Hypotheses were tested with multiple regression analysis. The results of our study reveal that Slovenian start-ups mostly rely on their strong ties when starting their business. Furthermore, the performance is significantly influenced by the approval of the personal network, representing the cognitive dimension of social capital.

Factors related to the capital structure of small new ventures

In the literature, there exists evidence on the capital structure determinants for small ventures, but empirical research for new ventures is limited. We seek to address this gap by presenting a confirmatory analysis of determinants of capital structure of a sample of small new ventures in Austria. An understanding of the determinants of capital structure is vital since a lack of equity can have serious implications for the existence and the prosperity of a new firm. Indicators that relate to the human capital of the founder are easily available and are most prominent in venture financing decisions. Also, the industry chosen and growth intentions can serve as valuable indicators for external investors. Applying ordered logistic regression, influences of the education level, founding experience, leadership experience and turnover on leverage could be detected.