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Author: van Witteloostuijn, Arjen
Resulting in 2 citations.
1. Spanjer, Anne
van Witteloostuijn, Arjen
The Entrepreneur's Experiential Diversity and Entrepreneurial Performance
Small Business Economics 49,1 (June 2017): 141-161.
Also: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11187-016-9811-0
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Springer
Keyword(s): Entrepreneurship; Occupational Information Network (O*NET); Skills; Work Experience

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

This study examines the relationship between the entrepreneur's experiential diversity and entrepreneurial performance. First, we argue that entrepreneurial and industry experiences are positively associated with performance. Second, by combining Lazear's jacks-of-all-trades theory with the cognition and learning literatures, an inverted U-shaped experience diversity-performance relationship is predicted. The hypotheses are tested using data from the US National Labor Survey Youth 1979 and O*NET. We find that industry experience is positively associated with performance, but entrepreneurial experience is negatively related. Moreover, experience diversity measured in terms of skills is found to be positively associated with performance up to a certain threshold. After this threshold, an increase in an entrepreneur's experiential diversity lowers performance. Entrepreneurs with 23 different skills have the highest performance. Furthermore, when depreciating for experience, experience diversity measured in terms of both skills and knowledge is found to be positively related to performance.
Bibliography Citation
Spanjer, Anne and Arjen van Witteloostuijn. "The Entrepreneur's Experiential Diversity and Entrepreneurial Performance." Small Business Economics 49,1 (June 2017): 141-161.
2. van Praag, Mirjam
van Witteloostuijn, Arjen
van der Sluis, Justin
The Higher Returns to Formal Education for Entrepreneurs versus Employees
Small Business Economics 40,2 (February 2013): 375-396.
Also: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11187-012-9443-y
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Springer
Keyword(s): Education; Educational Returns; Employment; Entrepreneurship; Income

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

How valuable is formal education for entrepreneurs’ income relative to employees’? And if the income returns to formal education are different for entrepreneurs vis-à-vis employees, what might be a plausible explanation? To explore these questions, we analyze a large representative US panel. We show that entrepreneurs have higher returns to formal education than employees. We refer to this as the entrepreneurship returns puzzle. We run post hoc analyses to explore a number of potential explanations of this puzzle. Indirectly, our analysis indicates that the higher returns to formal education for entrepreneurs might be due to the fewer organizational constraints they face, leading to more personal control over how to use their human capital, compared to employees.
Bibliography Citation
van Praag, Mirjam, Arjen van Witteloostuijn and Justin van der Sluis. "The Higher Returns to Formal Education for Entrepreneurs versus Employees ." Small Business Economics 40,2 (February 2013): 375-396.