The Productivity Advantage of Serial Entrepreneurs

Kathryn Shaw and Anders Sørensen

No 23320, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Serial entrepreneurs, who open more than one business, are found to have higher sales and higher productivity than novice entrepreneurs, who open one business. Using panel data on entrepreneurs and their firms from Denmark for 2001-2013, the serial entrepreneur has 67% higher sales than the novice, but also opens firms that are larger in terms of the initial capital and labor, and thus is 39% more productive. There are subsets of firms that perform especially well – serial entrepreneurs that hold a portfolio of overlapping ongoing firms perform the best, as do those that open as limited liability firm rather than proprietorships. Female serial entrepreneurs do as well as male serial entrepreneurs relative to the performance of novices of their own genders. The second firms of the serial entrepreneurs also stay in business longer than the first (and only) firms of the novices.

JEL-codes: G24 J24 L26 M13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-eff, nep-ent, nep-hrm, nep-lma and nep-sbm
Note: PR
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Published as Kathryn Shaw & Anders Sørensen, 2019. "The Productivity Advantage of Serial Entrepreneurs," ILR Review, vol 72(5), pages 1225-1261.

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