Title: Business entry and window of opportunity - empirical results for women entrepreneurs with graduate degree

Authors: Silke Tegtmeier; Agnieszka Kurczewska

Addresses: Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Scharnhorststraße 1, 21335 Lüneburg, Germany ' Faculty of Economics and Sociology, University of Lodz, Poland

Abstract: This paper explores the nascence period - the time between idea generation and business entry - among women entrepreneurs with a graduate degree. To address this research problem and to better understand the specifics of a window of opportunity, we combine selected theories of human and social capital and set up three hypotheses regarding the influence of different factors on the nascence period. To test our hypotheses, we used a representative sample of 678 graduate women entrepreneurs in Germany and ran a logit of regression on the nascence period. The estimated model revealed two main factors with a positive influence, namely having an entrepreneurial role model and having attended seminars about starting a business. In our model, these factors support waiting longer before starting a business. In light of these results, we call for a more experimental approach in entrepreneurship education.

Keywords: business entry; nascence period; women entrepreneurs; windows of opportunity; human capital; social capital; women graduates; entrepreneurial role models; self-employment; time span; female entrepreneurs; female graduates; Germany; business seminars; entrepreneurship education.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEV.2017.082633

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Venturing, 2017 Vol.9 No.1, pp.41 - 59

Received: 08 Dec 2014
Accepted: 26 Jun 2015

Published online: 04 Mar 2017 *

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